Andy Laub

“Are you gonna get Red Dead Redemption?” they said. I said I didn’t know; I knew the game was a reboot of sorts for the franchise, but having never played the original (Red Dead Revolver) that didn’t mean too much to me. There was a lot of talk about how this new installment in the series would be taking a lot of cues from Grand Theft Auto 4 (the Best Game Ever™) to the point where the proper title was eventually replaced with Grand Theft Auto But With Horses for the sake of convenience.

And that was really my hangup; I wasn’t sure if I could love a GTA game sans the A. I enjoy those types of games because even after the game proper is long since finished, it’s fun for me to drive around the city and just play. I couldn’t picture doing that on a horse (or really any other means of transportation). Honestly, the earlier the game’s setting, the less interesting I find the driving experience. The Godfather or The Sabotuer are both good examples of games that are just not modern enough to make the driving element engaging to me.

So I didn’t buy Red Dead Redemption. My recent changes in both mindset (don’t buy every game) and cashflow (inconsistent) have prevented that, so far. However, when I got a “we miss you; free rental!” call from the local video store (yeah, we have those!), I knew what I had to do. Three days should be enough time to get to know a game, right?

I think it was somewhere around hour ten when the truth really hit me. This isn’t just Grand Theft Auto But With Horses; this is a real, bona fide Grand Theft Auto game that just happens to be set in a world before the automobile was ubiquitous. Everything else – the mission structure, the tone, the general story, the gameplay, the feeling – fits seamlessly into the GTA framework (I sincerely hope to come across at least one ancestor of a current GTA character), and when you start to think of this game as an endeavor on the same level with such a behemoth it becomes that much more impressive.

Suffice it to say, Red Dead Redemption is a very good game that I had a lot of fun with in my limited exposure to it. There are a few nitpicks, the biggest being that it’s difficult to tell friends from enemies which wreaks havoc on your reputation; the auto aim isn’t particularly picky about who it points your barrel at and then suddenly you’re WANTED and all hell breaks loose. I still can’t figure out the fast travel system, if there even is one. Something about setting up camp and then jumping from there to a previous settlement, which I never experienced.

In typical Rockstar fashion, though, the pros far outweigh the cons. Visuals and design are solid, and audio continues to be a strong point just as it has in the GTA series. With no radio the music instead is sparse and appropriately Western, mellow when appropriate but becoming more frantic during shootouts and other dramatic sequences. Voice acting is superb, especially in the case of main protagonist John Marston. He reminds me very much of Timothy Olyphant’s character in FX’s Justified.

Unsurprisingly, gameplay is nearly identical to Grand Theft Auto IV, with a few notable exceptions. The new(?) DeadEye system (which effectively lets you slow time to pick off a number of targets) is an absolute joy to use and may stand out as the defining mechanic of RDR combat versus GTA combat; I don’t foresee it working in the context of a more modern setting but it’s very appropriate here.

Most exciting though, is that we’re finally seeing a game from Rockstar with no health meters! RDR has gone the way of many modern shooters in that you still have a finite amount of health, but as your condition becomes more critical the screen turns red. If you can find cover, the reverse happens after a few moments. It makes for a much less stressful experience and unlike DeadEye, I hope this propagates to all future GTA games.

In short, Red Dead Redemption is both a great game by itself and, if you’d like, a worthy entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Three days was enough to get to scratch the surface but I definitely look forward to spending more time together in the future.

I may need to start visiting the library, because I’m running out of material around here.

1. The Testament, John Grisham
2. The Street Lawyer, John Grisham
3. The Summons, John Grisham
4. A Painted House, John Grisham
5. The Broker, John Grisham
6. Bleachers, John Grisham
7. When the Wind Blows, James Patterson
8. Eaters of the Dead, Michael Crichton
9. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

Instead of releasing the actual game, Sony instead decided we would like this trailer they made for Gran Turismo 5:

0:12 – That’s a city. It looks… okay.
0:17 – Headlights in a tunnel? Kind of neat, but not something I’d want in a racing game.
0:23 – Why do these cities always look abandoned?
0:34 – Nurburgring. Eh.
0:38 – Car commercial shot.
0:54 – From that previous comment to here, this trailer is awesome.
0:55 – And now I’m bored.
0:55 – Mercedes’ should not be red.
0:58 – That’s better.
1:06 – ACTIVE AERO.
1:12 – Is the front plate really necessary?
1:20 – Stock cars…?
1:29 – Pit crews – that’s cool!
1:36 – That damage is fantastic!
1:40 – Ferraris should be red.
1:55 – They have all these gratuitous glamour shots when really you’re either going to be seeing the back of your car or the steering wheel 100% of the time.
2:25 – Gran Turismo 5: coming… some day?

So in summary:

1. Active aero is cool.
2. Pit crews are cool.
3. More detailed / extreme damage is cool.
4. I don’t care that much about GT5.

The Matrix is a great movie. Somehow, in an age where we thought we’d seen everything, it managed to bring something completely new and innovative to the action/sci-fi genre in terms of both plot and filmography. It’s a film that is wonderful all on its own, which is why there were tremors of confusion when the Wachowskis announced it would be a trilogy.

Similarly, Bioshock is a great game. If you wanted, you could call it innovative simply because it was a first person shooter in 2007 that didn’t have you fighting aliens or Nazis. But beyond that, Bioshock furthered gamers’ assertions that games could indeed be art. The plot, while still dependent on you fighting your way through… things… was refreshing in the context of this beautifully creepy underwater world. And, like The Matrix, Bioshock has that single moment of clarity in which the jarring reality of things completely blows your mind.

Of course, it could also be argued that Bioshock didn’t need a sequel. And I agree; the game is a work of art that begins and resolves an interesting story, and I would’ve been content with that. But 2K didn’t agree, and so Bioshock 2 is upon us. Like many jaded gamers, years of Tony Hawks and Call of Dutys have made it clear that not all sequels are good sequels. And when I first sat down to play this new installment, it was with much skepticism.

(I could go on an entirely different rant here about how reading reviews and previews of games can drastically and irreversibly alter someone’s opinion of them for better or worse, but I will save that. For now.)

Suffice it to say, I had been reading a lot of reviews of Bioshock 2 because I was genuinely looking for an excuse to skip it. Reading reviews is not something I do for games that I know I want to play, for reasons stated above. But the reviews all played the same tune: yes, Bioshock didn’t need a sequel, but here is one, and it’s pretty good, so get over it.

And they’re right. Unlike the rest of The Matrix trilogy, this new Bioshock turns out to be a lot of fun for those of us who enjoyed Rapture the first go-round. While it would’ve been impossible to do anything but put you in the (very heavy) shoes of a new protagonist, the strategy works. You get to experience some things that are only made possible by who you are in this game, and another layer of the Rapture saga is revealed as well.

All in all, it comes down to this: the original game is so highly-regarded partially because there was a certain novelty about it. That the second installment is enjoyable and interesting even now that that novelty has worn off speaks volumes about how ripe the setting and gameplay are for further exploration.

I took a brief hiatus from my Forza 3 marathon on Thursday to pay a final visit to Liberty City with The Ballad of Gay Tony, Rockstar’s latest (and likely last) installment of downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. Given my fondness for all things GTA, it shouldn’t come as much of a shock that I was watching the credits roll by lunchtime Saturday.

Rockstar’s approach to TBoGT doesn’t differ much from the previous installment – once again you’re put in the shoes of what was previously only a supporting character. As I said before, the experience you enjoy the most really depends on which character and lifestyle you are most comfortable with. In this case, that character is Luis Lopez, ex-con turned bodyguard of/business partner to nightclub impresario “Gay” Tony Prince (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark).

As a result, the game is centered around Algonquin, Liberty City’s equivalent to Manhattan, and the high-roller atmosphere extends to fast cars, great new music, and a slew of new over-the-top missions. Of course it’s not all fun and games, but I’ll just leave it at that with regards to plot. You’ll run across plenty of characters that you’ve been previously introduced to, including one loose end from the core game that I was glad to see tied.

I have to say, I really liked Luis as a protagonist – while he kept getting thrust into situations that were less than ideal, I never felt that things were completely out of control like I did with Niko or Johnny. One constant across all GTA games is that you can continue to experience the city even after completing the missions. You may find it telling that when presented with that option in TLaD I opted instead to return to the original game. I don’t expect that to be the case this time around.

This Russian cartoon. On Youtube:

0:00 – Fire.
0:05 – Cat! Off to a good start.
0:14 – That kid has awesome painting skills.
0:17 – While the dog seems to be incredibly competent at kneading, I’m still not sure this is the best staffing situation.
0:22 – Okay, I don’t know any humans who can make dough look like a bone OR a string of sausages. I retract my previous statement.
0:25 – And some dude fanning himself with his hat.
0:26 – And a dude with a pipe.
0:28 – …and a screwdriver.
0:31 – Wow, seriously. That dog is impressive.
0:35 – Fire.
0:53 – The problem with this television is clearly spiderwebs. But it’s not enough of a problem to actually fix, I guess.
0:56 – The cat looks kind of flirty now.
1:11 – Flirting = success! Maybe?
1:12 – Okay, definitely.
1:14 – Those curtains are magical!
1:22 – A screwdriver is still not the best tool for not fixing spiderwebs.
1:32 – You made a bone? What happened to the dough?
1:49 – It’s just Snow-freaking-White up in here. But at least the spiderweb problem has been resolved?
1:54 – Something awesome obviously just happened.
2:05 – I’m not convinced the kid is speaking a real language. It’s just consonants. Also, does he have pupils?
2:07 – Ooooh, it’s Christmas.
2:16 – And we’re outdoors.
2:19 – I’m thinking the money spent on the zoom lens could’ve been better used on a coat or something for that dog.
2:22 – Wait – the camera has a rifle grip? What?
2:26 – “If he shoots us, I want you to know that you’re my favorite. Also I’m drunk right now.”
2:32 – “I’ve had better.”
2:35 – “Oh.”
2:40 – That’s just not a camera I would be comfortable standing in front of. Or near.
2:41 – Like that guy. I’m with him.
2:47 – “Great! Dinner!”
2:49 – Oh.
2:51 – Beardy is talking about moose. Or ghosts. Ghost moose?
3:01 – Wouldn’t it be better for them to just go inside and watch Mustachioed Pianist Variety Hour?
3:02 – “Whose mustache is better? Be honest.”
3:06 – “Eh, you’re both equally queer.”
3:07 – Cat and boy are both astounded by the forwardness of such a statement.
3:12 – “Ohhh snap!”
3:14 – That lady is certainly… geometric.
3:20 – I don’t think that’s music.
3:28 – Here comes a lady with skis. Is this an Old Navy ad?
3:35 – Mr. Mustache clearly doesn’t understand how this technology works.
3:39 – On second thought – Michelin?
3:46 – She sounds like pretty much every Russian lady I’ve ever heard.
3:56 – Uh oh – something magical just happened, as it’s now time for the traditional Christmas Snowflake Treatment™.
4:00 – Aaaand that’s a wrap. I think we all learned a valuable lesson here.

It was big news when Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would see a simultaneous release for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Arguably even bigger news was that Microsoft basically showered Rockstar in cash in exchange for the exclusive rights to two episodes of downloadable content.

That was in 2006; Grand Theft Auto IV hit stores in April 2008 with the promise that the first portion of DLC would follow in the fall. And true to form, it was delayed. But finally, last Tuesday, The Lost and Damned arrived and set out to redefine what downloadable content can be.

Instead of continuing your experience as Niko Bellic (protagonist of the core storyline) TLAD puts you in the shoes of biker Johnny Klebitz (of The Lost Motorcycle Club), one of the ancillary characters that you previously crossed paths with. I really like this approach, as the entire cast of GTA IV is ripe for this sort of extrapolation. I was a little hesitant about the choice of a biker as I wasn’t a huge fan of the motorcycle-oriented missions in the original game, but fortunately those fears turned out to be unfounded.

Whether you prefer Niko or Johnny as a “hero” boils down to personal preference; I found both to be likable enough, with a sort of “why does this keep happening to me?” quality about them. As noted above, you’ll end up in a few missions where both characters are involved simultaneously and that may be my favorite aspect of this whole experience – seeing a whole new viewpoint of a scenario that you had previously only witnessed from one angle. Furthermore, relationship between Niko and Johnny versus Niko and the rest of TLMC is quite interesting to follow as they rarely seem to be consistent.

Aside from that the missions are par for course, but enjoyable. I probably spent around ten hours on the story mode, and didn’t find any one level particularly frustrating. Interestingly, Rockstar has reworked the continue system with this expansion, so restarting the mission often puts you at a checkpoint instead of at the beginning, finally.

Liberty City has also received some upgrades in the form a couple new interiors and some new vehicles; most of which are motorcycles. But most notable is the addition of all sorts of new music and dialogue on the radio stations. It’s pretty rad and remarkably satisfying to hear Deep Purple’s Highway Star and Bon Jovi’s Wanted blaring over the exhaust of your bike. Odd though – I can’t help but notice that Rockstar seems to have raided the Rock Band catalog. And while I believe the new vehicles are only available when you’re playing TLAD, the media additions are universal.

So is it worth $20? If you spent countless hours with the original, then yes, no thought required. Buy it and see Liberty City in a whole new light. If you weren’t crazy about the core game, than nothing TLAD brings to the table can remedy that aside from perhaps the continue system. Still, though, it’s not nearly as satisfying or interesting to play if you weren’t already emotionally invested in the characters. It’s not an entirely different game, and it’s not an entirely different story. What it is, is a very strong addition to what was already a very good game.

It seems that content providers have decided that Hulu will no longer run on boxee. What I’ve read suggests that they would prefer the revenue from actual TV ads versus the revenue generated by watching Hulu on a television.

Except the content providers always seem to ignore that it’s not black and white. My viewing choices aren’t limited to “watch it on Hulu” or “watch it on live TV”. They also include “don’t watch it at all”, “torrent it”, or “watch it on TiVo and skip the ads”. So are those zero-revenue choices (admittedly I’m not sure about the TiVo one) really preferable to the revenue from Hulu’s ads?

All I can say is that someone with extremely questionable taste must have borrowed my computer, I swear:

1. Spin – Lifehouse
2. 100 Years – Five for Fighting
3. Mandy – Barry Manilow
4. Toxic – Britney Spears
5. Trouble – Pink
6. Na-NaNa-Na – Nelly
7. La La – Ashlee Simpson
8. Little Girls – Oingo Boingo
9. Livin La Vida Loca – Antonio Banderas & Eddie Murphy (Shrek 2)
10. Invisible – Clay Aiken

Terrible music aside, I Twittered recently that it would cost me $135 to upgrade my purchased iTunes music to iTunes Plus. In news that’s both depressing and reassuring, that number has since climbed to $153. Imagine my relief when I read today that iTunes is now offering a la carte upgrades, so I can upgrade the stuff I’m actually glad I bought the first time without having to deal with the guilt that would stem from paying yet again for the shitty songs.

As a bonus, I’ve been able to recover a few songs here or there that managed to lose themselves in my computorial transition last year. The ol’ Powerbook was easily confused and ended up occasionally trying to put music on its internal drive instead of the external where it belonged, and that music was lost when I formatted the machine. I was able to recover a good portion of it either from CDs or off of my iPod (SHHH IT WILL BE OUR SECRET) (also this is why I demand an iPod that will hold my entire library), but upgrading filled in a couple of the gaps that still remained.

The last couple weeks have proven rather interesting for me. Fridays have found themselves full of meetings, and as a result more work and some exciting prospects that are still in the early stages of the maybe possibly happening?

I’m part of a podcast now, The Insophisticate. It’s about technology, but really it’s just my friend Dino and me talking for a random amount of time about the stuff we’d talk about anyway. You might find it interesting if you dig that sort of thing.

Wausau Community Theatre is presenting Gypsy at the end of February. I’m fortunate enough to be a member of the cast, which means I get to hone my acting skills and be with people whose company I enjoy. There’s no dancing or singing for me in this one, which I was kind of bummed about at first but has actually been a blessing in disguise since it leaves me with more open evenings.

Mass Effect was pretty darn good once I figured out how to play it; Orange Box is a game no 360/PS3/PC owner should be without. I’m probably 5% into Mario Galaxy but I haven’t picked it up since last month.

But seriously. Good things are coming (I think). There’s not one big thing that I’m looking forward to, but rather a bunch of small things that, when combined, make me happy.

It’s pretty much a given that game developers will capitalize on the success of a popular title by releasing a sequel (or two, or three). Often these promise more of what made the original game so appealing. Some fall short, especially when a franchise changes developers. Other times, the game falls short even with all the features that promise to make it better.

Personal experience with both of these within the last twelve months is enough to make me rethink my buying strategy, as twice now I’ve bought a game in the hopes of a new yet familiar experience, only to conclude that that once was probably enough.

The Benchmarks

Last year two franchises came into my life that I had not previously had an interest in playing. Both were launch titles for the Xbox 360, and both are remarkable games. It didn’t take me long to play through either of them, and I was impressed by the entire experience in both cases.

The Successors

Something got broken in the transition to the newer titles. One sequel was handled by a different developer, and while I’ve heard great things about the multiplayer, I think the single player experience suffered for it. Everything was mostly the same with small changes that seemed more like they were different for the sake of being different than anything else. I bought it right after finishing the previous title and forced myself to complete it before I could move on to other games, but I haven’t touched it since.

The other game showed a lot more promise, and I was genuinely excited for its release. There were some really great features promised, and upon playing through I can’t argue that they weren’t delivered. But at the same time, they again seemed to make some arbitrary changes, and the game lost some of the slickness that I liked so much about its predecessor. I think about the day I bought it. I needed to use some about-to-expire Best Buy offers, and so it was between this, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

I should’ve waited for Orange Box.

The Conclusion

You may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned titles. I’m not convinced it’s really relevant; despite the fact that I was disappointed by the games in this context, they are both quite good. I guess they just weren’t what I was hoping for.

Here’s a list of reasons why I’ve all but resigned to throwing each successive issue in the garbage until my subscription expires, as provided by the September 2007 issue:

• Page 18: Proclaims that the new race-bred F430, instead of being called the Challeng Stradale, will be called the 430 LP (“Light Pista”). Wrong. It’s called the Scuderia.
• Page 19: Horrible (in-house) concept drawing of a car that Ferrari acknowledges they’re not even building. What’s the point?
• Page 20: Photo of the first-gen Focus, which was available here, accompanying an article referring to the second-gen Europe-specific car.
• Page 21: Two large photos of an Audi RS6 test mule, accompanying a fear-mongering headline about the discontinuation of the RS4. This just in: Honda is discontinuing the Accord. So they can release a new one.
• Page 21: Same article. Used the word blogosphere.
• Page 26: Really, really unflattering photo of designer Frank Stephenson. The guy is a stud, but you wouldn’t know it from this photo.
• Page 76 Article about the Subaru WRX called, and I quote, “omgwrxlol.” Yes, seriously. Too much internet focus, especially when it gets to the point of referring to usernames regarding forum talk about the (ugly) new WRX. They promise to “set the record straight,” about what I don’t know. It’s still ugly.

I don’t know if I’m pleased or disappointed to come up with that many things, but man, that magazine just leaves me with a chip on my shoulder.

So you knew this was coming. Yesterday, 5:00 PM Central Standard Time, marked the release of the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV. So I went to their site at 9:00 PM or so, and got right in. The hi-res WMV loaded pretty easily, but when it came to playing, it was quite jumpy. Figuring that it was a bandwidth thing, especially since I’m on wireless right now thanks to our office being repainted, I opted to download the WMV. After doing so, the 1280×720 video stuttered in Quicktime. So I downloaded the iPod format. More stuttering. Fed up with the obviously overtaxed Powerbook at this point, I called it a day.

Then I went to start up the 360 for the first time since we moved. Lo and behold, the GTA IV trailer is on the Marketplace. Stutter-free playback in HD? Yes please.

After all that buildup, you’d think I’d have a lot to say about the trailer. But it’s called a teaser for a reason, so these are the only things I can say for sure:

• Liberty City is (one of) the setting(s?). And it looks a lot like NYC this time around.
• At least part of the game takes place in the present.
• One of the characters is Eastern-European.
• Graphics look promising. The moving shadows (as the sun changes positions) look very impressive.

What I’m hoping this trailer turns out to be is a misdirection. A way to show off graphics without giving too much away. As it stands, we’re led to believe that we’ll be playing a Russian man, new to our setting of Liberty City. But what if that’s not the case? What if he’s just one of the ancillary characters, and as time goes on, more trailers are released showing others that you’ll cross paths with, all from different cities? Crap, that’d be awesome.

Okay, okay, hopes are up. I’d better settle down now and stop thinking about it. And go reserve my copy.

So because finding a house, packing, moving, and fixing aren’t all enough work by themselves, I wisely also committed myself to, well, being in a musical. Yes, acting. And singing. And dancing. We’re opening in a week, and it’s starting to feel pulled together, so I’m really excited.

But it’s not just any musical, oh no. This is Urinetown (The Musical). It’s a story about love, corruption, rebellion, and so much more. Also it’s funny. And the music is the best. The basic idea is that water has become extremely sparse, to the point where one huge company oversees public restrooms (the only kind available anymore) that people must pay to use. Those who refuse to pay are carted off to the mythical Urinetown (the place). So naturally, this… arrangement… doesn’t last more than a couple scenes, as the young hero finds himself leading a rebellion against bathrooms that you have to pay for.

Normally, I’d guess there’d be only a moderate amount of interest in the show before it opened and people actually saw it. But not this time. As this production was already in its planning stages, Stevens Point Area High School (SPASH) kicked around the idea of doing it but it got canned by the higher-ups. Thankfully, media, being what it is, smelled some sort of story, and so now we’re doing “The show banned in Stevens Point!” Hot damn.

Obviously, it’s still too early for reviews, but we did get a preview in the City Pages yesterday. While I admit I read them sparingly, there was one bit that was just too good:

Originally scheduled to be performed in Stevens Point Area High School in November of 2006, the SPASH superintendent and high school’s principal canceled it for what they deemed “inappropriate content” — specifically irony, a concept not dealt with in the school’s curriculum until 12th grade apparently.

Burn!

So anyway, if you’re in the area, come see it, because it’s awesome.

Urinetown (The Musical)
UWMC Theater

• March 9, 10 at 7:30
• March 11 at 2:30 2:00
• March 14, 15, 16 at 7:30

Reserved seating; for tickets call 715.261.6230

• $12 Adults
• $10 Seniors & non-UWMC Students

The November 06 issue of details showed up today, and their advice is questionable as ever. You’ll remember that I don’t have a very high opinion of that magazine, and you’re probably wondering why I was reading it in the first place.

Well, I was eating lunch, and all the other magazines were upstairs. So, yeah.

Anyway, one article that caught my attention was entitled You’re a Boss, Not a Buddy, and covered the transition from fellow coworker to supervisor. For the most part, it was full of good points about how the writer tried to be a “cool boss” and ended up not being much of a boss at all. What I had to take issue with, so much so that I’m writing a damn post about it, was the sidebar, AKA “The Power Playbook,” a list of 10 ways to be a good boss and advance yourself up the ranks of executivity. From the article I get the impression that this is advice for bosses regarding their immediate employees; not, for example, a CEO vs. an intern. There are a couple decent points, but c’mon:

[Asshole Boss Tip] #2: Stay just out of reach
Let the tyros get carpal tunnel from their BlackBerries. The truly powerful are minimally available, and even then to only a select few.

Wait, what? So your immediate subordinates should have no way to run things by you when they have questions? Then what? You reprimand them for not consulting you? Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #4: Freeze out the new kids
Teach entry-levels the hierarchy by studiously ignoring them. You’ll motivate them to prove themselves worthy of your time.

No. You’ll motivate them to find work elsewhere. Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #6: Forget details
Take a cue from your grandmother and occasionally lapse on rookies’ names…

“Where’s what’s-his-face? Oh, he quit?” Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #10: Be cryptic
A terse e-mail—more William Carlos Willams than Willam Wordsworth—isn’t just a time-saver, it’s a mindfuck. A three-word reply will resonate much more deeply than a lengthy treatise.

Wow. So apparently you’re employees aren’t getting frustrated enough by their clients or customers who think this kind of communication is appropriate, you thought you’d join in too. Goes great with #2. ASS. HOLE.

I have been lucky not to have any bosses like this, but I feel really sorry right now for people who report to those who take details seriously.

Cast members gone from SNL season 32:

• Rachel Dratch
• Tina Fey
• Finesse Mitchell
• Chris Parnell
• Horatio Sanz

New cast members:

• All the featured players are now regulars, but that’s it, leaving an awkward space of music between Kristen Wiig’s name and the band announcement.

That seems, uh, rather thin.

Ever since I first heard about Danger Mouse’s Grey Album (music from the Beatles’ White Album mixed to rhymes from Jay-Z’s Black Album) I’ve been a fan of the mashup genre. Unfortunately, after hearing it I wasn’t overly impressed but I still support the idea.

Over the past year I’ve stumbled upon a couple more; Dean Gray’s American Edit takes the Green Day album and mixes it with songs across the board with great results, while The Gnotorious Gnarls Biggie was not quite so impressive. But earlier this week I came across The Silence Xperiment’s Q-Unit, the unlikely combination of 50 Cent and Queen.

Far and away, this is my favorite of the group. Tracks 2 and 7 are the best. Check it out.

Thus far, every post of mine regarding the Xbox 360 has been rather glowing, and for good reason: it deserves the credit. However, that doesn’t mean every piece of software that graces the CD tray or hard disk is worthy of the same praise; here’s a list from least to most offensive:

• F.E.A.R. is some kind of paranormal tactical first person shooter that just barely makes the list. Why? Because there is technically nothing wrong with the game and even the demo is scary (the whole point). Therein lies the problem; I have never been a fan of being terrified by my own media, which is why I tend to avoid scary movies as well. If you’ve played Half-Life, then you get a sense of the vibe, but imagine it much darker and with more blood. There is no doubt it’s a great game in and of itself, but not for me.
• Dead Rising involves zombies and is also rather scary. It inches ahead of F.E.A.R. because, for some inexplicable reason, I actually bought it and I still don’t know why. Probably because the demo, which I naively thought represented the overtone of the game, was fun and simple: kill zombies with TV’s; kill zombies with shovels; kill zombies with park benches; etc. Unfortunately they decided to go and put a story in it. And psychopaths. Great. And I haven’t gotten to the point where my character is strong enough to make it fun. And the save system is terrible.
  EDIT: I meant to mention this before, but forgot. I need to actually get myself to play the game some more to get myself leveled up, and then it will probably go a little more smoothly.
• Test Drive Unlimited is on here for wasting two hours of my life. Those familiar with the demo will realize I played it to the maximum time limit twice, which is indicative of how crack-like it is. I play and play, and all I can think is “I’m totally wasting my time on this,” a feeling reminiscent of Driv3r which (surprise) is from the same company (Atari).
• Uno: the computer freaking cheats.
• Sonic the Hedgehog, everybody’s best friend from Sega, will be arriving soon on the PS3 and Xbox 360. This doesn’t seem like bad news until you realize the last good Sonic game made for consoles was Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, and even that was debatable. That game was at least fun; the camera was decent and the movements were relatively predictable. It was easy enough to get through the first level or two without dying if you were familiar with 3D platformers. This new one though—and this seems to be a common issue—has been throwing a lot of people for a loop (and not in a good way). I used up my allotment of lives making it through the first section of the demo level, and then when I loaded it up again, I used them making it through the second section. After that I contemplated deleting it because let’s be honest, a Sonic game that you can’t just pick up and play is not worth playing at all.

In my last post when I mentioned the XBL Marketplace buying experience I glossed over the Point currency system that Microsoft uses.

With the recent developments on the Zune front, Microsoft Points have suddenly become a much more relevant topic. According to CNET:

The new Microsoft cash system will work by adding money to an account, as with a prepaid phone card. Points will then be deducted from the account with each purchase. A single song will cost 79 points, “the equivalent of 99 cents,” according to Microsoft spokeswoman Kyrsa Dixon.

Fair enough. The article goes on to indicate that the Points will be universal, meaning Live users will be able to use their Points for music and vice versa, which is not a surprise; rather, that’s how it should be.

Well, that’s how it should be if Points are involved. The question is, why are they involved in the first place. According to Microsoft:

On the original Xbox Live, transactions had to be around five dollars U.S., the minimum for most credit cards. But with Microsoft Points, the price for most anything—maps, skins, levels, demos, and more—can be much lower than that. That’s a big deal. For example, say you want to get one of the new maps for your favorite shooter, but you’re not that interested in a few of the others. Lucky for you, Marketplace can offer each map individually for just a few points.

So Microsoft’s logic behind the Point system is to bypass the $5 credit card minimum. This sort of makes sense on the surface, but there’s one problem with telling people this: the iTunes Store. Enter your credit card information once and you can buy as little or as much as you want at any given time; no silly $5.00 limit.

After some discussion with a fellow gamer (AKA: my boss), we landed on the theory that it’s not that you can’t spend less than $5.00 on a card purchase; it’s that the retailer gets charged an amount if you do. So rather than a way to circumvent this $5.00 limit, the Points are a way to save Microsoft money.

Don’t get me wrong, at this point it’s still not that big of a deal. I don’t think most 360 owners are put off by Points, especially after you get an idea of the dollar/point conversion rate (as stated above, $1.00 is approximately 80 Points). Then again, I would venture that any 360 owner who uses Xbox Live probably has a decent amount of comfort with technology and downloading media as opposed to buying a physical copy.

I would also venture to guess that Microsoft’s intended market for the Zune is much broader; of course they want technophiles to buy it but they also want to appeal to the normal not so computer literate person; the one who assumes it will work with their machine because it says Microsoft and not Apple. If the goal is to get these people comfortable with buying media online, I think the Points are the biggest obstacle (aside from terrible hardware or software, but I’m giving MS the benefit of the doubt).

I’m not sure what the lowest amount of Points you can buy at a time is, but let’s say it’s 500. By today’s rate, that’s about $6.25. If a new Zune user wants to try the music store, they have to commit to $6.25 instead of $1.00 as they would in iTunes. Furthermore, I’m curious how unobtrusive it will be if you decide to add points; say, if you want to purchase a whole album but don’t have enough in your account, is it easy and fast to add more?

The final and potentially worst aspect of the Point system across the board is the exchange rate. I don’t know if anyone could tell you why Points don’t convert equally to cents, which makes it more complicated to figure out exactly how much something costs (rev up your calculators). Aside from it being just plain inconvenient, I think there’s a hint of deceptiveness about the whole system. It’s a rather conniving way of making everything appear less expensive than it actually is, and that’s not cool.

I’ll close with this. I think the Zune, because it’s not completely reliant on the music store for content, can survive in spite of the points if it’s a good piece of hardware. But if the music store itself dies, I think the Points will be the ones holding the knife.

So last night I hit a major landmark in my life when I gave my credit card number to my Xbox. Now that is a strange feeling.

One of my favorite features of Xbox Live is the downloadable content that’s available. Namely, the free downloadable content, most notably game demos. One of my first downloads was the demo for Just Cause, one of the main reasons I bought the 360 when I did.

Since then, I’ve had my fair share, even going so far as to try out the much-loved Uno (the computer totally cheats!). But yesterday was my first time actually buying anything through Xbox Live. I downloaded a demo called Cloning Clyde, an addictive little platformer available in the Arcade section (MS’s area for sub-$10, party-esque mini games).

Sure enough, as demos tend to do, it hooked me and within 15 minutes I paused the game, bought some Microsoft points, and nabbed the full version.

Great. Another way to spend money that’s as easy and fast as iTunes. That’s certainly just what I needed.

Thumbs up:

• Gapless playback (ON THE 5G IPODS TOO!)
• The new nanos
• Graphic design for the new nanos
• Steve’s non-black non-turtleneck
• iTunes 7

Undecided, or I just don’t care:

• The “iTV”
• Movie downloads
• The new shuffle
• iPod games

Thumbs down:

• No gapless playback in pre-6G iPods (firmware update please?)
• Steve, unbutton that top button!

Seasons are changing and I’ve shifted gears back into my video game mode, meaning more new purchases.

I started out with Mercenaries which is really quite good. You play a mercenary (obviously), in the midst of a war against North Korea and you’re running around performing missions for different factions in an effort to gather info on the infamous “Deck of 52” (this sounds… familiar). The whole game looks great (dark and dreary – typical war game), and has a Grand Theft Auto feel to the mechanics of it, not that that’s a bad thing.

Speaking of GTA, after making my way through the entire suit of clubs in Mercenaries, I dropped it for Total Overdose, aka GTA: Mexico. Pinning it down like that isn’t totally fair, as the driving is nowhere near as good. On the other hand, the gunplay in the game is ridiculously fun, with you hopping all over like you’re in The Matrix or something. The premise of the story is similar to that Chris Rock movie Bad Company (great movie), but in Mexico and with more action.

I also ordered a copy of Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, a game which was an Xbox exclusive way back when that I’d forgotten about. It’s in Vegas! Probably that’s where the game actually is right now, too, since it’s not here.

In the midst of all this single player action, Abe and I have also started playing Halo for the very first time ever. We’re playing through in co-op mode, which is a great alternative to having to do the entire thing alone and then beating eachother up in versus mode.

Most recently, I’ve started playing Saints Row, another Grand Theft Auto-looking game, with one notable exception: it’s on the Xbox 360. And it looks amazing. I’d write more but, well, new toy… and… yeah.

Within the last week new issues of both Wired and GQ both showed up, and both included the same Fashion Rocks supplement. An interesting read, but it got me thinking about how close the too are in terms of both content and feel.

Back in the 90’s, Wired was strictly a magazine for nerds. I don’t mean that negatively, but it’s true. I never felt smart enough to read it, but maybe that’s because I was in high school and didn’t know what was going on anyway.

Similarly, GQ always had an unapproachable air about it; I’d never be gentlemanly or fashionable enough to be a GQ reader! It’s so… hoity toity.

Now though, everything’s completely crossed. Nerds read GQ, fashionistas read Wired, and I read both. Furthermore, it’s become more and more apparent that one person can actually be both and this is acceptable in modern society. That makes me happy.

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that certain pieces of gadgetry have crossed the boundary from being purely functional to being fashionable as well; it’s cool to be in the crowd that owns them.

At the same time, we’re seeing certain pieces of fashion take a more technological approach. Shoes are the best example of this. Nike shoes are the best example of this, and they use the technology as a selling point. This is not to say that everything in both worlds will eventually overlap completely; suits will continue to be sold based purely on appearance and servers will continue to be sold based purely on their tech, but it’s nice to see that the overlap exists.

There are a few companies that thrive in this overlap. They’re the tech companies that it’s cool to buy from or the apparel companies that are secretly nerd havens. I suspect we’ll be seeing more and more as time goes on.

Abe has been a subscriber to a magazine called Cargo since close to its inception a year or two ago. It was an interesting magazine, though I didn’t like how it evolved from being a shopping guide to another celebrity-driven publication. It also didn’t seem that there were many actual… articles in it. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but I could have lived without it.

Last week a copy of GQ showed up, with a note about how Cargo is no longer so we’d be receiving this instead. I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I’ve never really read GQ before. As it turns out, it’s better. Way better. GQ manages a nice medium between the list-ridden Cargo, the bitchy details, and poor, bi-monthly, ad-stricken Complex. Those other magazines were all fine, but I actually quite enjoy GQ‘s selection of content and sense of humor.

We also seem to accumulate Metropolitan Home magazines in spite of the fact that neither of us is a subscriber. I’ve grown to like them quite a lot as well since they also strike a good balance of content, photos, and actual real information (floor plans, etc). Unfortunately, while our home is rent-controlled it is neither metropolitan nor open for modification so the ideas we see are doomed to occupy the back burner for now.

One such idea was in an article about a pair of guys in a Boston loft. They have two dishwashers, and the space from each is adequate for all of their dishes. As a result the entire array of dishes resides in the dishwashers and gets shifted from one to the other as they get used, which struck both of us as quite a brilliant idea. Considering that cabinetry for dishes probably costs nearly as much as a second dishwasher it seems to be a clever solution especially if you’re lazy or your cabinet space is limited.

While throwing some songs together for a CD to put in my car, I was curious as to what would happen if I took a video and added it to the playlist. iTunes wasn’t so sure about this and asked me if that was really what I wanted to do? I continued on my way and when I clicked the “burn” button, everything continued as normal.

So then I was curious as to whether they could be imported like a normal track, especially since I don’t have just the audio for this particular song. Again, the answer is yes (since after it goes on the disc it’s just another generic song).

I’m not totally sure this will work with videos purchased from the Music Store (though I don’t know why it wouldn’t), but it works with the video that just came off my hard drive and was in the iPod format.