Hurray For Excessive And Gratuitous Violence

Finally got this today, and MAN am I ever impressed. The original God of War was released in 2005, and made my list for best game of the year. Now God of War II is out and while it’s essentially the same game, it addresses all the minor criticisms of the first to make a virtually perfect gaming experience. The visuals are improved, there are more boss fights in greater variety, and the levels are huge, varied and completely breathtaking. What was already perfect in the first game is more or less untouched here, so the combat is still exhilarating, the puzzles still sufficiently complex enough to warrant some thinking to solve them, and the pace and flow are brilliant. Now, the only criticism that you can level at this game is that it’s just more of the first game, but better. You can see that they’re still using an improved version of the previous engine, and you can tell that the mechanical aspects, with the exception of a few new abilities, are largely untouched. So this not as revolutionary a leap as what gamers experienced from Metal Gear II on the Nintendo Entertainment System to Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, but if you can get past the fact that this isn’t a complete revamp, then the only criticism of the game disappears and what you’re left with is one of the single most perfect games that will ever grace the Playstation 2. While I’m still more emotionally attached to the grandeur of Guitar Hero, I also understand that it’s a much more niche, more limited game in what it can offer. God of War II on the other hand, shows absolute genius in all aspects of “traditional” gaming. You simply will not find a better action game this year on any platform than this. Unfortunately for the island I called home for over a decade, this particular title also has some upper body frontal female nudity, and as a result has been BANNED from Singapore. I still get a pitiful thrill from knowing that I acquired, with perfect, legal right, something that could get you fined or arrested in Singapore.

On the writing front, I actually got some news of progress. Nothing definite, but it’s progress. My agent sent me an e-mail from the editor that’s looking over my third novel, The Pale Summer. The e-mail says that he’s been going over the manuscript and is making his notes about it. When he’s done, he’s going to compile a list of questions about changes, suggestions and revisions and my answers to those questions will largely determine the fate of the book. I suspect that the bulk of the questions will be “can we change these locations from Asia to North America?” as the the last couple of rejections of the novel have come on the grounds that setting it in Asia is too much of a stretch to ask of genre readers, so I’ll have to see what I think of these changes if/when the time comes.

Oh, and I wrote a bit more of Lost In Loveless. Slow going… but getting there…

Forums & The 80′s

There’s a truism that’s popped up on forums on the internet that goes something like this, “Arguing on the internet is like participating in the Special Olympics, win or lose, you’re still retarded.”

I really should pay more attention to truisms like that.

Over the last few days, I’ve actually found myself honest to God hating someone. And I don’t even know who it is. On the GameAxis website, they have, surprise, surprise, a forum. And recently there’s been someone who popped up out of the blue that could be diplomatically described as a Sony Fanboy. Although it’s actually more accurate to say that he fits the technical, dictionary definition of a fanatic. His belief in Sony is blind, unwavering, irrational and causes him to actually despise anyone that doesn’t own a Playstation 3 or believe that Sony is the best company in the world.

What amazes me about him is that I’m actually a strong supporter of Sony. Or was. Over the last few days seeing him go on a crusade where he has insulted people and blindly praised the Playstation 3 has done the one thing that years of being nicely treated by Microsoft Singapore has failed to do; it has turned me against Sony and put me in a position where I actively support Microsoft. He repeatedly refers to the Playstation as the “Godstation,” he has called people that own Xbox 360′s “Xbots” and he goes so far as to call anyone that owns an Xbox 360 “retarded.”

I don’t even own one of these machines, and now I want to buy one just to spite him, and I want to see Sony fail because I know it will crush his psyche. I found myself horrified at the way this kid unabashedly praised Sony, and deliberately did not respond to any arguments with sound logic, or that actually presented facts or journalistic references that would disprove his points. Instead, he just replied to posts in the forum that agreed with him, and continued to imply that anyone that didn’t own a Playstation 3 was somehow unworthy of being alive. I even found myself making blog posts and forum posts throughout the GameAxis website that indirectly responded to his remarks without actually naming him, although my constant use of “and for the fanboys out there” probably made it pretty obvious who I was really responding to. I was so disgusted and even disturbed by his zeal that I find I’m actually distancing myself away from any visible support of Sony just so I won’t be associated with him. It’s ironic to me that the one thing that could shake my loyalty to Sony was someone even more loyal than I am, but hatefully, irrationally so.

Oh well, in other news…

This news actually came out in January, but I was so busy with the move, it slipped past my radar. Only people who follow the industry will know this, so I’ll recap. Harmonix is the creator of the Greatest Music Game Ever, Guitar Hero, a game which is published and OWNED by their publisher, Red Octane. Earlier in the year Big Money decided it wanted the piece of the action. Activision went and bought Red Octane–and the Guitar Hero franchise–while MTV bought Harmonix.

The result of this is that Guitar Hero III is being produced over at Activision by Neversoft. These are the guys that normally create the Tony Hawk skateboarding games. Yep, skater guys are making a guitar game. However, before the split, Harmonix, unable to completely let go of their baby, managed to sneak in one last title. That title is coming out June 13th, and it is… wait for it…

GUITAR HERO: 80′S EDITION.

You can weep with gratitude now. God knows I did. The shoulder pads. The make up. THE BIG, BIG HAIR! All coming back in a yuppie, cocaine-snorting package for your plastic Gee-Tar. My GOD, this news made me happy.

While I’m almost completely overwhelmed by the thought of more Guitar Hero this summer, I can only calm myself down enough to have three major requests as far as songs go. So far I would very much like to see:

1) ANYTHING by the Cure. ‘Cause, y’know, Robert Smith kicks ass, and in the immortal words of the South Park kids, “Disintegration was the best album ever!”

2) Turning Japanese by the Vapors. Not only is it a brilliantly funny subversion of punk music, the song is another one of those iconic 80′s tunes that also happens to have some damn fine, DAMN FUN guitar riffs. Perfect Guitar Hero material. And lastly…

I Wanna’ Rock by Twisted Sister. Seriously, can you possibly get any more 80′s hair metal than THIS?!? I mean, for God’s sake, just let your eye swing to the left and LOOK AT THIS FREAKIN’ GUY… Dee Snider, the lead singer, and my illustration example today, went on record as saying that Twisted Sister should not be called Glam because they’re not glamorous. Instead, they should be called “Hid” because they’re hideous. At least he had a firm grip on reality and knew when to call a spade a spade…

Monday Is Grocery Day

Meaning that we did pretty just that… and I wrote more of Lost in Loveless and managed to finally figure out a particular plot problem. More precisely, the Wife figured it out, and I’m just stealing her idea….

Another Boring Sunday

All I did was update my DVD catalog (something that I apparently hadn’t done since 2003 according to the program’s record) write a bit of Lost in Loveless, do up a last minute GameAxis article and watch some bizarre Japanese film by the same guy that did Audition, Ryu Murakami only this wasn’t some horror film, so much as a confusing, arty sort of film called Tokyo Decadence that seemed like it was about Japanese S & M hookers until it took a hard left into tangential land 3/4 of the way through and just became odd and pitifully tragic. At least until that brick wall of an ending. I get the feeling that the Murakami just had no idea how to end the film after he made his statement clear about his feelings on modern Japan…

Getting What Is Deserved

This is something I’ve been meaning to mention for a bit now, and today is as good a time as any. Anyone that grew up in the 80′s might remember the animated film The Last Unicorn, based on the novel of the same name by Peter S. Beagle. There are all kinds of interesting bits of information surrounding it, such as the fact that Rankin/Bass Animation actually farmed out the animation to a Japanese company called Topcraft, that would eventually become Studio Ghibli. Or the fact that they got some really big names to provide the voice work, like Mia Farrow as the perfect, ethereal, delicate unicorn, or Christopher Lee as King Lir.

But probably the biggest thing that’s come from this movie is the fact that it was enormously mature in its theme and, for the precocious child, really gave you a lot to be monumentally depressed about. Over the decades this film has continued to traumatize intelligent, sensitive children (and merely confirm how complex and depressing the world is for adults) and it was all thanks to remarkable insights of the author, Peter S. Beagle. And the part of this story that really kills me is that despite the fact that this work has moved leagues and leagues of people throughout the years, Beagle has never seen a dime of it.

This has changed.

There is a publisher, Conlan Press, who has championed the abuse that Beagle has received at the hands of the money people over the years. The Last Unicorn was re-released in February on DVD, and though the transfer isn’t perfect (being taken from a remastered German PAL version, meaning that the animation is about 4% faster than normal) this is the best that movie has looked. In particular however, is the fact that Conlan Press has cut a special deal and when you order this DVD directly from them, they give HALF of the profit from that sale to Beagle himself. In return, Beagle is actually signing the DVDs, even taking requests for small personal messages.

It goes without saying that we’ve already gone and ordered this DVD for ourselves. The movie traumatized the Wife in particular as a child, and I can’t say that I was immune to its depressing charms growing up either. If you remember this movie at all, liked it, and want to do something for the creator, who is actually not that financially well off (especially in comparison to guys like King, Rowling and Gaiman) then do a good deed and help the guy out. Order your DVD from Conlan Press right here.

Work, Movies and Velma

As you can see, the Wife suddenly got motivated to finish the sketch of Velma that she did in black & white way back when we were still in Singapore. I don’t remember Velma looking quite this slinky, but I sure ain’t gonna’ complain about it.

Other than that, this was another delightfully boring Friday where we didn’t hit the town and do all kinds of urbane, cosmopolitan things. Instead, I finished up my articles for GameAxis for the month and then after that, powered through Tetsuo The Ironman, which is another Japanese WTF film that I simply cannot describe. Except to say that only the Japanese would decide to give a man a giant drill as his new genitalia, and only they would be curious to see what it would look like were he to use it on a woman.

‘Nuff said…

The other movies that were viewed were all existing ones in our collection, simply because I’m slowly going through all our films now that we can watch them in widescreen and high definition, just to see what they look like. Today was bits and pieces of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (okay, I admit it, once again, the Spock dies scene moved me to tears, dammit…) and The Matrix, which, since I hadn’t seriously looked at it in years, actually had improved. I mean, I liked it a hell of a lot before, but in light of recent “science fiction” efforts like The Island, The Matrix is a freakin’ masterpiece in that it does manage to combine some amazing action with some actual intelligence and a really, REALLY interesting idea.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch Clash of the Titans.

Tomorrow, The Last Unicorn and how you can help Peter S. Beagle…

You Know You’ve Settled Down In Your New Home

When all you have to report on your blog is nothing but work. Finished up more GameAxis articles, saw the dentist for the second and final cleaning of the teeth, and went down to a shop on Queen Street called The Magic Pony to see whether anything interesting was happening for the launch of a new series of figures by a noted designer. Unfortunately, the launch was more for the collectors than any artists, so we didn’t stick around very long. We did, however, find out that a nearby sex shop was in the market for original erotic artwork. Since the Wife just happens to be going through a phase where this is exactly the kind of subject matter she likes doing, this just might end up having promise. And of course, it tickles me to no end to think of the Wife having artwork for sale which would be illegal in Singapore. That sort of thing makes it all worthwhile, man…

Another Quiet Day

The only things that happened of note were that I finally got around to watching Rubber’s Lover, a WTF movie if ever there was one. Kind of a Japanese combination of David Lynch with Stanley Kubrick’s clinical inhumanity. And screaming. Lots of screaming. And rubber suits. And people’s head’s exploding. And more screaming.

And in other news, I finally got around to filling out all those scary legal documents from IGN. I suppose it’s just for record keeping purposes, but I felt a bit weird filling out an American W9 Taxpayer Identification Number contract when I don’t actually pay taxes in the USA. Still, they sent it out to me, so I signed it, despite the fact that somewhere in the fine print, the signature is supposed to acknowledge that I am a lawful citizen of the USA. Uh… yeah. Sure. Just gimme’ the job and I’ll make freakin’ Apple Pies come out of my mouth when I belch, whatever it takes…

This… Is… Yet Another Quote From The Movie 300!

Yep, today was the day that I finally broke my 10+ year fast and stepped into a Canadian movie theater. Fortunately the experience was somewhat mitigated by the fact that I was watching a 4:00 pm matinee showing on the fringes of southeastern downtown Toronto. I think that made the whole affair far more palatable than it would have been otherwise, because, at least in this one regard, Singapore wins hands down over Canada in the theater going experience. I don’t know why neither America nor Canada has adopted this, but in Singapore, they have a much, MUCH more sensible mechanism for handling the “Want a ticket/Have a ticket” lines of North America. For Singapore readers, this may be a bit shocking, but the sad fact is, when you buy a ticket in North America, all that entitles you to is admission into the theater. So, especially if it’s a popular movie, this entails getting into a SECOND line hoping to be near the front so that when the theater doors open, you can make a mad dash for the better seats, ie, the center aisles. In Singapore, when you buy a ticket, the cashiers have a monitor built right into the bottom of their counter that displays a floorplan of the theater once you’ve told them which movie you want to see. On the floorplan, all occupied seats are graphically marked out, so you pick the empty seats and then the ticket is printed, WITH YOUR ROW AND SEAT NUMBER ON IT. This way, if you went in the afternoon to buy a ticket for the evening show, you can walk away, do some shopping, hang out with friends, whatever… and just casually stroll into the theater minutes from showtime to find your empty seats waiting for you. This is something I have actually done for myself on many an occasion and it’s BRILLIANT.

This is sensible and convenient, and I completely fail to understand why North America has not adopted this.

Idiosyncrasies of North American film culture aside, I was very happy with what I saw on the screen. I would go so far as to say in many ways, 300 the movie actually surpassed 300 the graphic novel. The graphic novel, while a truly impressive and visceral experience, was almost one-note in its constant emphasis on Duty, Honor, Glory. While it was obvious in the movie that these were still fundamental concepts for the Spartans, Snyder wisely interlaced this with a heavy dose of humanity. The Spartans here weren’t simply amazing killing machines looking for glorious death, as they appeared in the original graphic novel. Gerard Butler–as King Leonidas–managed to convey a sense of the Spartans actually fighting for something they cared about. They weren’t peerless combatants because they were sadists that reveled in war. They were expert soldiers because they wanted to defend a land and people they loved, and this was evident even in their strategy, which involved unity and working together as a cohesive unit. I found myself marveling at the visuals (then again, I suppose EVERYBODY is) but was caught off guard when I realized that even the Old Friend was moved to tears by what she saw on screen. This is a girl that cried at When Harry Met Sally and loves Lady & The Tramp, so to see her actually moved by a bunch of hyper-testosterone infused guys fighting for Sparta, Honor and a Glorious Death was more than a little surprising. Or maybe she was just overwhelmed by the amazing amount of male cheescake on the screen. That was a LOT of perfectly sculpted abs and pectorals…

Boring, But Productive

Today wasn’t particularly exciting which, I am sorry to say, is EXACTLY how I like it. You know you’re getting old when you look forward to a Drama-Free day and I’m definitely a big fan of those. Aside from the usual trip down to Bloor for a grocery run, the only things of note that happened today were that I was a good little chipmunk and cranked out more of the articles for GameAxis that are required for this month. Also, I got this in the mail:

And not the poster either, the movie. This was one of those random eBay moments where I suddenly realized that I hadn’t seen the movie in years and actually remembered it quite fondly as one of the few genuinely good fantasy films of the 80′s. Whether or not the lens of nostalgia has anything to do with that now remains to be seen. I’ll pop it into the PS2 (this is our sole DVD player now) in a few days and see whether the carnage is as spectacular as I remember it, or whether Peter Jackson has now made it impossible for me to enjoy any fantasy film effort made without the help of WETA Digital Effects.

Oh, and it is official. After getting an e-mail with some very scary looking legal documents that I need to fill out, I will be doing my first gig for IGN. This may not mean much to most, but to me, having spent years relying on these guys for my gaming news, it feels like I’ve finally punched a hole into video game journalism legitimacy, assuming such a thing can be said to exist in such a wonky field. Still, to the game geeks that care, and to the gaming publications that are in North America, being able to wave a reference as monolithic (reviled or not) as IGN definitely means that I ain’t some amateur fanboy writer who thinks he can put a few words together and then tie it into a l33t bow with a juicy phrase like “pwned” or “OMGWTFBBQ” and actually have a certain standard of professionalism.

Or it could simply mean I’ve sold out. Whichever, I’m happy with both.