I WANNA (HAVE TO) HOLD YOUR HAND

*ahem* Better late than never, right?

What's with video games forcing a darkness dwelling, anti-social, awkward and agoraphobic troll like myself to engage in intimate and personal (No, I don't mean that. Well, actually, sometimes that) activities? I play video games so I don't have to do things like keep real life relationships going. Answer obnoxious phone calls and drive my "friends" around to do the things that they want to do. Take middle aged men by the hand and traipse about through the damn forest! Gamers (mostly) are an inherently irresponsible lot - so why heap irritatingly mundane responsibilities on our frail, unsunned shoulders?

Social dynamics are like the new water levels - annoying and necessary to complete a game. Well, mostly necessary. It seems that with Fable III you can more or less skip the whole friend making thing altogether to get to point B, but the overall suggestion I'm getting from the developers is that I'm missing out on, like, two thirds of the experience should I overlook it. The game, the series as a whole, seems to have a habit of taking complex ideas and trying to distill them down into something much simpler. Or raw, or whatever.

Not my cup of tea when I'm having stupid days, I guess.

But it's ok. I have a new (virtual) Man-Crush; In the form of Geralt of Rivia. I had always been itching to give the Witcher a spin and I'm so glad I did. I know he may be a moody, substance-abusing mutant-junky of an anti-hero- but he's my anti-hero. Hyphens and all.

Speaking of catching up on my ever growing backlog of unplayed games, I've jumped back into Dead Space in an effort (and out of excitement for the sequel) to finish the damn thing. My suggested tone is probably misleading: I love Dead Space. I loved it when I didn't finish it and I love it more now. With the exception of Molyneux's latest, so far so good...

... And better late than never, right?

-Fitz

End transmission.

ILL TURISTA

Actually, the multiplayer in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is pretty awesome, despite what initial worries and fears may have coerced my mouth into expressing when I learned that there would be an aforementioned online play component to the game.

Seeing some of it in action at last year's Comic Con didn't have me convinced.

I recently finished the single player campaign. I don't really remember a lot of it. I know I had fun, but I don't remember. Maybe it's the game's way too samey familiarity to the first (second) game (Assassin's Creed II... I wonder: Would I somehow find myself at the wrong end of a hidden blade if I used a '2' instead of the 'II' the game dramatically insists on displaying...) in the series, or the comparitively uninspired location when juxtaposed to ACII's, like, five (relatively) different looking areas?

Something didn't grab me about the game. I wasn't as invested in Ezio's homicidal exploits this time around. It all felt too easy, somehow. However I do remember every single slaying rendered in white knuckle pulse racing detail I executed (heh) in my first multiplayer session. It really does make you feel like you're getting away with murder - if murder implied you dressed up like a clown and leaping out at your victim from a mound of strategically placed hay, yelling "Blaba-Ha!" while simultaneously trying to evade a poison-filled-syringe-wielding Marylin Manson video reject "doctor" hot on your heels...

But I'm sure for someone somewhere in history, that's exactly what it meant.

-Fitz

End Transmission.

(UN)FRIENDLY COMPETITION pt. 2

The universe's warped brand of justice is served.

Red Dead Redemption has my attention once more in the form of the Undead Nightmare pack. I finally decided to give it a whirl and I must say, it's good to dust off the ol' dusty sunbleached hat... thing, and slip into the spurs of John Marston again. Not so good, though, is remembering (which lent to mine brain that grudging "oh yeaaahh....") how Mr. Marston controls. Or doesn't, as the case may be.

I tell ya, there's nothing that shatters the immersion factor into a million little pieces like trying to casually strole through an open door on a second story balcony only to get snagged on the corner of the entrance, overcompensate with the movement stick, spin wildly out of control and take a dive over the railing to the street below. Real smooth, action star. Real smooth. It's enough to get under my nails, sometimes.

Maybe I just have to reacquaint myself with the way the guy handles, having been away from him for so many months; like embracing a long lost friend - relearning their idiosyncrasies, what makes them tick. What makes for a good conversation. What will make him swing the God damn torch in the right direction instead of flailing wildly at open space while a walking husk from hell feasts on your epidermal delights.

But I like it. In spite of the above logorrhea, I do like it. The mood the developers have managed to create along with the reunion of all those classic characters makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Now, I just have to remember how to play the damn thing - a new way.

-Fitz

End Transmission

(UN)FRIENDLY COMPETITION pt. 1

Apparently, Nintendo is the only video game big whig out there that is anti-achievement, according to this I was reading recently on Kotaku. Posted therein was also this; an essay examining the ins and outs, ups and downs of the (apparently) much heated achievement debate: Good, or Evil? In the context of game development, that is... I think.

I honestly don't know my stance on the matter, personally, as ever since I purchased an Xbox 360, got a Steam account and mucked around on various other forms of gaming specific platforms and indie titles I never necessarily felt harvesting points of any kind was weighing me down; cramping my style.Yes, there are some achievements that I have yet to ravenously stalk into the gaming twilight that will, honestly, never see the light of day (i.e. Win 50 gazillion perfect online ranked matches in a row without dying or using any ammo!!), and there is an empty trophy shelf, a small pang of regret that is parked in the same imperfect place in my soul that harbours that hankering for a 200.6% (ridiculous) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night file...

But that has never stopped me from enjoying a good game - featured achievements or no.

I suppose my feelings on the subject are case to case. If the comic has anything to do with it, or was supposed to, I have no idea, either. Nothing like a gift wrapped in ambiguity to stimulate the imagination.

-Fitz

End Transmission.

FAVORITE ACTOR AWARD

And now, for your ocular pleasure, the new comic is up!

[note: I aim to update the comic section once a week, probably Fridays, with a new little batch of panels for the corners of your mouth to shimmy to. The format of these might change here pretty soon, but for now, the short commentary-esque style in which the last two have been is what I am comfortable with for the time being]

About that, I don't interperate Adrien Brody's physical/facial construction to be of an ugly persuasion, however, to one of these guys, he might look pretty unusual.

Predators, produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimród Antal,  starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne and Walton Goggins,  is slated for a July 9th release.

-Fitz

End transmission...

Transmission 101: Humble Beginnings

Well, our first Podcast (or, Deep Space Transmission, if you will) is up!

Alternate titles: LOST Penis Rock, TIMMY!, or In Which Fitz & Ryan are LOST

Half of the crew (Gabe and Carr) have been with the show, Lost, since it first aired and were all aflutter waiting to see what the final episode had in store for their patient, yet eager minds to devour. And then there is Ryan and I who, having never seen any of the show before, decided to catch the last little bit of the saga which is notorious for its intricate and highly elusive plot design.

We have a conversation about it. We record it. Hilarity ensues. I suggest feasting your ears.

End transmission...

• watch the final episode of Lost here
• more than a few unanswered Lost questions
  
• a montage of every death scene from Lost [via] [via]
  
• 30 sec of ad space durring the Lost finale cost $900, 000 (a 400% markup!) [via]