2/29/2008 - GAMERS ANONYMOUS

Since I'll be attending the Iron Man of Gaming 2008, I figured the best way to get back into the hardcore gaming community was to get a first-person shooter, so I went ahead and bought Call of Duty 4. I was reluctant to do so because I knew what would happen. The last time I rented a FPS, it was Resistance and I played it so much that the callous on my thumb reappeared (it appeared the first time when I was heavy into the Street Fighter games back in the SNES days).

The single-player campaign in Resistance was quite long, and the challenge level gradually got higher to where the last levels would drive you insane. And that's the perfect mix: first, it was a rental game, so I wanted desperately to finish it before I had to return it; second, it was a rewarding game... I mean the gameplay was tight and had a great presentation quality; and third, the challenging nature of the later levels would guarantee you would have to play them over and over again. Finally, add the fact that I am a type-A personality and you get one addicted player. Don't get me wrong... it was a good game and everything... it's just that playing the game for over six hours straight without even a restroom break probably wasn't very healthy.

After just two nights of playing Call of Duty 4, though, I did beat the single-player campaign (the reviews are right about its short nature). So it doesn't look like I'll be starving myself by playing this game. Although, I have yet to really get into the online multiplayer mode... so there's still a chance that I might have to enter a "gamers anonymous" program like in this skit:

2/28/2008 - Funniest Moment On A Game Show Ever !!

It's amazing how the mind plays tricks on you... take this clip from a British game show, for example:



Now if you were laughing along with the audience, then your mind is in the gutter, too! :)

2/27/2008 - The Great WARIO WAFT

Just to follow up on my blog entry about the Final Smashes of the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I just wanted to mention that I plan to play as Wario in the game. Why? Well, I've used him ever since he was included in the Mario Party games. Call me anti-establishment, but I just love how he's the oddball of the Mario "family". He was actually the bad guy when he was introduced in Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy. I guess he was such a hit with the players that he became the main character in the next game. He used to be portrayed as a greedy SOB, but now he's just a sort of obnoxious anti-hero. When the first video of Brawl came out revealing Wario as a playable character, it looked like his Final Smash would be a fart of atomic bomb proportions. That was what cemented my decision to use him as a character! It sort of disappointed me that his actual Final Smash would just turn him into Super Wario. But at least you can recreate the atomic fart if you so desired:

2/26/2008 - MacBook Air Unboxing

I'm not sure what the fascination is with unboxing videos on YouTube. They're everywhere! Everything from cell phones to video games, people like to show off their new toy to the rest of the world. I figured that if I was going to feature an unboxing video on this blog, then I'd have to go with one that features the hottest gadget out there right now, the MacBook Air. As if the demonstration from Apple's commercial isn't enough, this video gives some visual size comparisons between the MacBook Air and a couple of other Apple products. Needless to say, it is eye-opening.

2/25/2008 - FINAL SMASH

Undoubtedly, one of the things that made Street Fighter II so great was the special moves each character had. These were powerful moves that were a signature for each character and were almost magical in nature. Truthfully, the original Street Fighter did have special moves for Ryu and Ken like the Hadoken and Shoryuken, but they were so incredibly hard to pull off that it seemed like an accident when you actually were able to perform it. In Street Fighter II, however, the programmers made the joystick motions for the special moves so forgiving that they were easily repeatable... but you had to know what the motions were in the first place. And that was what made SF2 such a social game... when you saw a special move being done, you would just go and ask the player how he or she did it. That is, if he or she was willing to. Remember that it is a competitive game, after all.

Perhaps inspired by the progression of all the other fighting games with their special moves and in some cases, fatality moves (a special finishing move at the end of a match where your defeated opponent would be at your mercy to be killed creatively and often violently), Capcom upped the ante in Super Street Fighter II Turbo by introducing the "Super" move. Think of it as an even more powerful version of a special move that can be used as an act of desperation or as a cool finishing move. A Super move could only be used when your "Super meter" filled up by doing regular special moves or by attempting to hit your opponent. Of course, the other fighting game publishers *cough*SNK*cough* would follow Capcom's lead and "introduce" Supers in their fighting games. Supers became a staple of these games and got kind of crazy with multiple-level Super meters and combos that hit in the dozens with the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Despite Super Smash Bros. coming out years after the Capcom games, they did not really have Super moves... that is, until Super Smash Bros. Brawl next month. Of course, the Smash Bros. series does things a little different and in this case there won't be a Super meter. Instead, there will be an item called a Smash Ball that will appear randomly which you have to hit to activate and then collect. Your character will then be able to do a Super, or the Final Smash, as it is called. Spoilers ahead, as this video reveals the Final Smashes of every character:

2/24/2008 - Longest Video Ever On YouTube!

Anybody who has ever uploaded a video on YouTube knows the drill: 10 minutes of video or 100 MB maximum filesize. The truth is, you can upload more than 10 minutes of video as long as it's under 100 MB. I've seen videos out there that are close to 1 hour in length and are still watchable because of good compression. I'm sure people are curious then as to how long can you make a video while still conforming to YouTube's rules. Well, I think we have a winner in this video here:



My usual criteria for favoriting a movie on YouTube is being able to enjoy it even after the third viewing, but in this case, I'm going to make an exception. I'm not going to even watch the whole thing because it is supposed to be over 10 hours long! The great thing about this video is that there is no point to it other than making the longest video to be on YouTube. I mean if you are going to watch this entire video trying to get some enjoyment out of it, I feel sorry for you.

2/23/2008 - Fonzie jumps the shark

Boy, I'm glad the writers' strike is over. It's not that I watch that many scripted shows... I mainly watch news and information programs. But I really miss the routine of watching some of the weekly shows. Take Mondays, for example: Monday is known to be the most hated day for most people because it's the start of the work week or the school week. But I haven't minded Mondays that much because 24 is on. Or it was on until the writers' strike. To tell the truth, though, I'm kind of glad the new season of 24 was delayed because I want them to be more creative and do a better job than last season. I gotta admit, it wasn't their best effort. A lot of people say that 24 "jumped the shark" the last season, and I say if they did, the exact moment was when they set off the nuke.

Now, what does "jump the shark" mean? Well, it's the precise point during the life of a TV series at which it goes downhill. For example, many say the X-Files "jumped the shark" right after the release of the movie. Series star David Duchovny wanted the show to be moved from Vancouver to L.A. and despite their best efforts, the entire mood of the show changed, and not for the better. Okay, why do they call it "jumping the shark"? Because the first and most famous example of a TV show completely disintegrating before viewers' eyes is "Happy Days" when their lead character Fonzie literally jumps over a shark while water skiing:



Ugh... you know what the worst part of that clip is? The faux Jaws music. It sounds like something from a Friday the 13th movie instead.

2/21/2008 - Shia LaBeouf in "No No No NOo" video

Shia LaBeouf is probably the biggest rising star in the land of L.A. today. He starred in the ultra-popular Transformers movie last summer and he'll be some kind of sidekick to Indiana Jones himself this summer. It's easy to see why he's so popular. He looks like a regular teenager and acts like a regular teenager. And when I say "regular", I don't mean like those you'd see on the football field... I mean like those you'd see in the band. Yeah, it would be unrealistic to see Shia score a girl like Megan Fox, but this was a movie about 50-foot robots from outer space, after all.

If Clint Eastwood is known for the line, "Go ahead, make my day", then Shia will ultimately be known for being a man of one word:

2/20/2008 - NBC Today Show: Apple MacBook Air

You probably have all seen Apple's MacBook Air commercials... you know, the one with the laptop coming out of a manila envelope. It's all cool and shows how remarkably thin the laptop is and everything, but the commercial is so minimalistic, not giving specifications or pricing. But everything that's not mentioned in Apple's commercial is all neatly laid out in this segment of the Today Show:



Wow, talk about "pimping" a product. Just listen to Al Roker's reaction! I mean, why even go through all the trouble of producing a commercial and paying for airtime when a major morning news program will sing praises for the laptop all for free? They practically recounted Steve Job's keynote address down to the pro-environmental aspects of the MacBook Air. You wanna know the ironic thing? NBC's cable news channel is MSNBC, a joint venture with Microsoft. I'm sure Bill Gates is asking Steve Capus, "What were you thinking?"

2/19/2008 - Spooky photo proves life on Mars?

Back when I was in grade school, I read all the pseudo-science books. You know, the stuff about UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, psychic powers, spontaneous human combustion... all the stuff they showed on the X-Files. I guess that's why it was my favorite TV show when it was on. Anyway, I used to believe in this stuff. I always thought that you couldn't disprove the photographs... in fact, I thought the graininess showed that it wouldn't be from someone who was trying to perpetuate a hoax.

Boy, was I naive. I know they didn't have Photoshop back then, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too hard to doctor a "Nessie" photo. Jeez, I think I did a lot of book reports and science papers on this stuff. I mean, it's not that I don't believe there are aliens out there... in fact I do... but I just don't think that they have had televised autopsies. I may be naive again, but when there's finally proof of this stuff, I think we'd really know it... especially with the internet now.

I had to chuckle when I saw this news story a couple of weeks ago, though. Has there been life on Mars? Primitive "life", maybe. Is there life there now? Probably not. But then again, there's this photo:



I just love how this "alien" looks like the famous picture of Bigfoot:

2/17/2008 - Big Blue Music

Next month the gaming world will mark another momentous occasion as Super Smash Bros. Brawl is released for the U.S. audience. This has been a long-awaited release for the still fledgling Nintendo Wii. The previous Smash Bros. games have been huge sellers and it looks like Nintendo has pulled all the stops for this one. It looks so great that it would be the only game that I consider buying the Wii for. On top of it all, there is online play, something that will definitely make the replay value go into the stratosphere.

To get an idea of what the game is going to be like, we should look to none other than the previous release of Super Smash Bros., Melee. For that we turn to a series of YouTube videos from user "CrappyCaptureDevice". These videos chronicle the "History of Super Smash Bros. Melee" by showing all aspects of the game in relation to their counterparts in the past games of each franchise. From stage levels to special moves, this "history lesson" is quite extensive and very entertaining.

I've chosen to feature the lesson on where the music of the Big Blue stage came from. First, of course, the Big Blue stage of the SNES version of F-Zero is shown. I've always liked this music because it suits the racing theme very well. In fact, if I had this playing in my car radio, I'd be tempted to speed. What I didn't know, and what this video opened my eyes to was that an alternate soundtrack plays on all the stages at random times. For this stage, it comes from an obscure racing game for the NES called Mach Rider. It is said, in fact, that F-Zero is the spiritual successor to Mach Rider. I don't know about that, but the music is kinda cool.

2/16/2008 - The Dark Knight Trailer. IN LEGO!!!

After watching the sub-par Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in the theaters and realizing how much they have raised the prices to watch a movie, I decided that I'm watching ONLY superhero movies in the theaters from now on. Fortunately, this year is bringing forth a bunch of superhero movies. First, there's Iron Man, which looks awesome so far and has a perfect cast in my opinion. Then, there's the Incredible Hulk movie which is supposed to be a reboot after the unpopular Hulk movie from 2003. Personally, I liked the first Hulk movie, but I can see why the general movie going population didn't. What's exciting about the Iron Man and Hulk movies is that I hear they are going to have some crossover elements in them so that they can lay the foundation for an Avengers movie! Now that would be awesome. I know a Hellboy sequel is coming out too, but I've never read the books or have even been interested in the character, so I'm skipping that one.

I was going to skip Batman: The Dark Knight until I recently re-watched Batman Begins and found it to be a better movie that I originally assessed it to be. Yes, there are still those annoying plot holes I have problems with, but as a whole, I think it's a great origin movie with a pretty good cast (I still prefer Michael Keaton as Batman). The last scene of the movie sets up the Joker as the bad guy in the sequel and everybody was really curious in the Heath Ledger casting of the role. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but from what we see in the trailer, he looks pretty convincing as the hyena-like maniac. For those who haven't seen it, here it is... in Lego form!

2/15/2008 - YupYupYup

Call me an old fogy, but I don't get rap music. How did it become so popular with the youth? It doesn't sound musical. I mean, there's a reason why they don't allow rap music on American Idol. It's only appeal I think is the harsh language and that it (tries to) keep a beat. But if rap music disappeared from the Earth tomorrow, I don't think people would cry over it. That said there are two rap songs I actually like. One of them is Sir-Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back", mainly for its hilarious lyrics. The second, is from this video:



Who knew Balrog could rap? I really like the use of Chun-Li's battlecry from her lightning kicks as the "chorus". Come to think of it, the reason why I like these rap songs is because of the clever lyrics, and not because of their "music".

2/14/2008 - Love Hurts

Cupid... what a bastard:

2/13/2008 - Alex Trebek Drunk

It's time for Final Jeopardy!

And the answer: This video:



And the correct question is: What is the last thing I thought I'd ever see?

2/12/2008 - Mario Meets Halo

In the history of video game crossovers there have been a few standouts: Battletoads & Double Dragon, Marvel & Capcom, Capcom & SNK, and the latest being Mario and Sonic finally together. The Mario/Sonic crossover is such a big deal because Nintendo and Sega were such bitter rivals in the console wars of the Nineties. Sonic was supposed to be the "anti-Mario" that would be Sega's answer to Nintendo's popular sidescroller. Sega was pretty successful with the Genesis, but couldn't overtake the Super Nintendo during its reign. Once Sony entered the market Sega's decline really accelerated and they ceased becoming a hardware company.

Now there's a new console war with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. While Nintendo's mascot is still the ever-loving Italian plumber, Mario, Microsot's decided their mascot would be the silent soldier of Halo fame, Master Chief. Since the console war is still ongoing, of course, it will probably years until we see a Mario/Master Chief crossover, if ever. That is, unless someone were to program such a game on their own:

2/11/2008 - Man Turns Dark BLUE !

I think I've mentioned before that horror movies don't scare me much anymore. I mean, I may be grossed out by some of the torture stuff that is coming out now, and the jump scenes may give me a brief jolt, but none of that gives me the creeps. For some reason though, I don't know why... THIS guy scares me:



Talk about strange... it's amazing that he didn't realize he was turning blue because it was such a gradual change. Man, if I have such a reaction to this guy, I can imagine the reaction of others, especially kids. Now that I think about it, I used to be scared of Lou Ferrigno's Hulk, even though the Hulk was (and is) my favorite superhero when I was a kid. They've had a green Hulk, and grey Hulk, and now a red Hulk. It will only be a matter of time until there's a blue Hulk, I guess.

2/10/2008 - Mega Man Music Video

The last Mega Man music video I featured dealt with what I consider to be the best Mega Man game and the best 8-bit game in general, Mega Man 2. Interestingly enough, I didn't have the original Mega Man before buying its sequel. Mega Man was not a very popular game and with its horrible box art, it's no wonder why.



It wasn't until Mega Man 2 became popular that the original Mega Man became a sought-after item. In fact, I didn't find my copy at a toy shop or an electronics store. I found mine at a Walgreen's in the bargain bin! As far as the game itself, it's a great game and definitely the first of its kind. It really got out-shined by it sequel, though, which improved on the original in every respect. What struck me about Mega Man was how difficult it was compared to Part 2. And that is precisely the subject of this music video:



Poor Mega Man, he has to relive every frustrating aspect of that game: the drop-away platforms in the Gutsman stage, those annoying Roomba-like machines on Elecman's stage, and the dreaded Yellow Devil in Dr. Wily's stage. I didn't even know it was called the Yellow Devil until recently. But the name certainly fits. To this day, I can't beat that thing without the famous pause-unpause glitch.

2/9/2008 - Assassin's Creed Guard Love

It's amazing to see how far artificial intelligence in video games have come. I've heard that in the original Pac-Man, there would be a pattern in the way the ghosts move and that you can play a perfect game by simply knowing the pattern. Obviously, if this was the case, then there was no sophisticated A.I. in that game, even if you thought that the ghosts were scheming against you.

Even in the side-scrolling days of gaming, there would always be a pattern to the enemies and that the way they could beat the human-controlled characters would be to have quicker attacks or programmed with inherent advantages like better weapons. When fighting games came around, this lack of true artificial intelligence meant that the computer-controlled characters would "cheat". I see this prominently in the Street Fighter II games where the computer would immediately respond to one of your attacks with the only attack that could counter it. This may be possible within the design of the game, but the split-second manner in which the counter-attack is pulled off is humanly impossible. The computer would also "cheat" by pulling off charged special moves without charging, something that definitely could not be done by a human.

Despite these advantages, the computer can be beat because eventually you will start to recognize the pattern and take your own advantage. These patterns are actually deliberately programmed into boss characters and it gives you a kind of satisfaction to recognize them and using it to beat the game.

A.I. in video games made its biggest leap when first-person shooters came around. In the more difficult single-player campaigns you'll see the enemy use cover effectively and try to surround you. Perhaps because FPS's take place in a 3-D environment, you are less able to discern any patterns that are programmed into the computer opponents. However, it is a necessity to make the enemy smarter in these games, otherwise the difference between playing against the computer and another human being would be far too great. For a real challenge, nothing will ever beat going online against the hardcore gamers.

Still, with the tremendous processing power of today's consoles it is getting to the point where computer-controlled enemies will be programmed with artificial intelligence that make them more natural and almost human. Take the next-gen video game Assassin's Creed, for example. Your character is in the middle of an entire city packed with computer-controlled characters that are doing "everyday" things like shopping at markets, conversing with one another, and even committing petty theft. They do so in such a naturalistic way that the experience that it all really does seem like real life. In fact, it's a little scary to see how some characters behave:



It just proves that bots have to get off too...

2/7/2008 - Apple Music Event 2001

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost seven years since Apple first introduced the iPod. Looking at this introduction video now, it was so hard to imagine back then that this little device that plays music would be the one thing that brought Apple back into the mainstream of consumer electronics. After all, it only worked on Apple machines which at the time had very little market share. Also, it was very expensive compared to MP3 CD-players that could play about 100 songs per CD. I don't even know if Steve Jobs himself knew what a phenomenon the iPod would be, even though in this video he touts all the features that did make it a smash: its ultra-portability (even though it looks so bulky now), its ability to store your entire music library (even though the current Nano holds the same amount at less than half the price), its ease of management (one could argue that iTunes has gotten bloated now), and its cool sytle (again, the current Nano trumps the original in every respect).



Of course, at the time, no one knew what was really up the sleeves of Steve Jobs: the iTunes online music store and the availability of iTunes for Windows. The first came at a very opportune time when the RIAA started to seriously crack down on Napster downloaders, forcing the file-sharing program to cease operation. Who knew that so many people would happily switch to paying for their music? And everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY was shocked when iTunes came to Windows. Even Jobs said that "hell has frozen over" when it happened. But looking at it all now, it all made sense. Only true geniuses like Steve Jobs would have known it years ago.

2/6/2008 - Funny Madden Glitch

Hmmm... this glitch on a Madden football game reminds me of that critical Superbowl play where the Patriots could not sack Eli Manning before his throw to Tyree. Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

2/5/2008 - Tron Project (1999)

It's probably safe to say that Tron was the movie that started it all... well, the trend of movies being completely or mostly computer-generated, that is. Tron was released at a time when arcade games were all the rage, and it definitely took advantage of what was in fashion. It's use of computer terminology was loose, to say the least, but for moviegoers back the, it's "special effects" were like nothing they've ever seen. Looking back at it now, the graphics do seem quaint... in fact, they can be reproduced by an out-of-date PC with only a Pentium 2 and 128MB of RAM, as this video shows:



That's a pretty great re-creation of perhaps the most memorable scene in the movie. And you can bet that they had this as a stage in the arcade game.

2/4/2008 - PERFECTVILLE Still Population 1

Being an Apple Macintosh fanatic, you'd think that my favorite Superbowl commercial would be the famous 1984 ad that started it all, and it was... until yesterday. I'm a Mac fan, but I'm also a Miami Dolphins fan. It was pretty disappointing season this year to say the least... with the Fins only winning ONE game, Tom Brady erasing Dan Marino's records, and the Patriots on their way to becoming the 2nd undefeated team, something only the 1972 Dolphins team has accomplished. That is the one record that hasn't been taken away from them and it has stood for 36 years. In fact, whenever the last "undefeated" team loses a game during the season, veterans of the '72 team toast to a bottle of champagne.

Well, it was looking really unlikely that the bottle would be opened towards the end of yesterday's game. I mean, it looked like every other come-from-behind win by the Patriots the past few weeks. A team would get really close to beating the Pats, but then Brady would turn it on and throw the winning touchdown. It all seemed inevitable that the results would be the same, with New England being the favorite by 13 points, and the Giants being only a Wild Card team. But then a miracle happened. It was truly like out of the movies... a real Rocky story... only this time Rocky beats Apollo in the first movie. I'm sure everybody has seen the highlights of the last drive by Eli Manning, but highlights are nothing like watching it live. The pass to Tyree will be the stuff of legend. And the pass to Burress allowed the '72 Dolphins to open that bottle.

This bridge to history was something that was not lost to Reebok's advertising agency. They planned an ad that would air immediately after the Superbowl depending on the outcome of the game. I don't know what the commercial would have been like if the Patriots had won... probably a passing of the torch or something. But the commerical they did air? PERFECT.

2/2/2008 - Perpetual Luigi Machine

I've featured a handful of "Perpetual Mario Machine" videos on this blog, and something seemed missing... Oh, that's right, he has a brother, Luigi! Mario is such a big star in the video game world that it's easy to overlook Luigi. After all, he was just a color swap of Mario in Mario Bros. and in Super Mario Bros. (and they were both the same color if you caught the Fire Flower). He finally became a distinct character in the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2, being taller and skinner than Mario, and he was able to jump higher than Mario, but he is slower and harder to control. However, in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Luigi loses these distinctions and becomes just a color-swap of Mario again. This was probably because our version of Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn't recognized in Japan until after part 3 came out. Luigi was then unceremoniously dumped from the 3-D Mario games, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario sunshine. He did get is own game in Luigi's Mansion, but he might as well have been a stepbrother of Mario instead. Luigi returns to glory in Super Mario Galaxy, with his unique controls from Super Mario Bros. 2. It's time that he got the recognition he deserves, and to celebrate, here's a "Perpetual Luigi Machine" video:

2/1/2008 - CES 2008 - Optimus Maximus keyboard

The Consumer Electronics Show had its run last month in Las Vegas and boy, would I have loved to be there. I've never been at one of those trade shows before, but I can just imagine the atmosphere. The neon lights, the gambling, the booth babes, and of course, the gadgets! Even though I wasn't there, reading all the tech blogs and watching the videos from the floor was the next best thing. There were bigger and thinner TVs and smaller and more capable cell phones, and I'm sure the trend will continue next year.

One really innovative thing that made an appearance is the Optimus Maximus keyboard. When I first heard about this thing, I thought it was some kind of Transformers branded keyboard. While I was wrong on that, the keyboard is transformable in that it is infinitely customizable because its keys are actually little LED screens. That is, if you can make a picture out of 48 x 48 pixels, you can put it on a key. Like the representative describes in this video, you can make your computer keyboard as ugly as you want. And look: it works on a Mac!