SC2 Gameplay Demo

Looks like the Protoss have some interesting new units - and it sounds like the whole game is getting more balanced - not that the first game wasn't balanced. Now it just looks like armor type vs. damage type will make a lot more of a difference, rather than just being able to mass Carriers or Hydras and roll all over everything. Basically it looks like most units will have some sort of a counter-unit in each of the other races - even against Siege Tanks! That's pretty damn exciting.

Also, with the new terrain-jumping features, turtling should be harder, and the whole thing should just be a lot faster-paced.

Also, the Mothership: This thing is ridiculous. First, it basically has a mobile, multi-barrel ion cannon. Then, the "time bomb" - it does bullet-time for any nearby enemy unit or for incoming fire; everything just stops short of hitting it. And then:

Yes, that's a black hole. 'Nuff said.

Heroes season finale

Don't worry, no real spoilers here. I mostly just wanted to say that I was alternately disappointed and relieved at how non-cataclysmic it was. Also, was it me or was the dialogue even more ham-tastic than normal? Not that that's really a bad thing; Heroes is great at being ridiculously stylized and comic-y while still being amazing.

Anyway, mostly I just want to start a discussion in the comments area so as not to have any spoilers out here on the front page again.

It's About Time

Hans beat me to it, but...yeah. It needs to be trumpeted.

You heard his name

He's MC Rove!

Oh, Those Wacky Japanese! (Episode 372)

So, thanks to Aryss over at the SV forums, I have expanded my knowledge as a religion major. I now know more about a Shinto festival previously unknown to me. It's the Kanamara Matsuri - and we all know what that means:



Festival of the Steel Phallus! Brought to you by the same religion that brought you that wolf game I just talked about.

Ookami da ne?

So, someone has very clearly been raiding just about every video game fantasy I've had since I started gaming. And that someone is Capcom. I vaguely remember reading about this somewhere when it came out in the US, I think on PennyArcade maybe, but then I had placed it ruefully out of my mind because back then I thought I'd never own a PS2. Well, that is almost certainly going to change soon, and I randomly ran into a guy I hadn't talked to in a year or two this afternoon who reminded me of Okami's existence. I promptly started to drool in a Pavlovian response, and here's why.

You play a wolf. Who is the Japanese goddess Amaterasu. Who fights, not only by the various and sundry wolfy means of biting, scratching, and anime-jumping all around the screen, but also by painting. The whole game visuals are in a stylized version of medieval Japanese art, and one of the major ways to interact with the world is to use the paintbrush - a giant, time-stopping brush that can cleave enemies in twain, slice apart obstacles, and add color to the world. That's the objective; to return color and nature to the world.

So in summary, you play as a wolf-avatar who has to traverse a stylized medieval Japan to save nature. I. Cannot. Wait.

A Brave New World

...of console gaming. Yes, yes, this isn't exactly a new field of entertainment for most of you, but it's not something I've ever really had a chance to experience. Until very, very recently, the extent of my console gaming consisted of:

-Playing on a first-gen Game Boy at a parents' friend's house
-watching a friend play some of Ocarina of Time
-Dead or Alive 2
-watching Josh play Metal Gear Solid 2
-getting my ass handed to me at Goldeneye
-playing on an SNES emulator occasionally

And that's seriously about it. Recently though, I've been playing more SNES games (Lost Vikings, ChronoTrigger, Donkey Kong Country) and getting into Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm enjoying it a lot. And now, it seems, my comp's going to need a major overhaul to get caught up with the next wave of games, thanks to Vista and PCI-express/DX10 advances. I'm sure this'll all be awesome and pretty-looking in about 2 years when the prices come down and the bugs get ironed out, but for now, I'm looking for an alternative.

So basically, I want you guys' advice on which system to get into - PS2 or Nintendo DS, or maybe both? Also, definitely game suggestions - I know a lot of the big-name ones, but there's probably a lot out there that I don't know about that you guys might, especially for the DS. So yes, talk about your favorite games, and let me know what I can look forward to! Plus, if you know anything to watch out for in my search for the new system, that would also be greatly appreciated - I heard something about the old non-"slim" PS2 not running some of the more recent games, thought I have a sneaking suspicion that was just a GameStop employee trying to make more money.

In the Immortal Words of Andy's AVP Character Lance:

"Damn Brits."

Seriously, they need to watch more movies. This is pretty hubris-y.

UK Military awaits Skynet launch

Saw 300 two nights ago. Highly enjoyable, and excellent amounts of gore and wanton slaughter, plus some sweet shield walls. The characterization of all the "bad guys" as either deformed, gay, or both was kind of off-putting and made it a little too black-and-white (literally, in some cases) for my tastes, but overall you can overlook that pretty easy and just sit back and enjoy the ridiculous stylization of Thermopylae. It's definitely worth a big-screen view.