Stuffed and Bloated I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday. Christine, being a nurse, had to work most of the day so it was up to me to cook the bird and the side dishes. Let's just say that I'm the friggin' man. Everything turned out beautifully.
I spent most of the day playing Mario Kart: Double Dash, unlocking nearly everything there is to unlock. Playing through the game got me thinking about the concept of unlockable content and its worth. At first glance, Mario Kart's initial content is extremely underwhelming. Three cups, four mediocre multiplayer arenas, and only a handful of karts and characters from which to choose. However, as you place first in each of the cups in Grand Prix mode in each of the engine classes, more and more content becomes available. I know, it's not really anything new, but I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say that once everything is unlocked in Double Dash, the game become significantly more enjoyable. The initial batch of multiplayer arenas are so boring that being obligated to play them is frustrating.
My argument here is that while unlockable content can indeed be a good thing and add value to a game, the degree of content to be unlocked shouldn't have such a profound effect on the game. Double Dash straight out of the box is, to me at least, barely passable. Why not give us at least 90% of the great code contained on the disc from the outset, giving us the rest of the 10% as bonuses? Value-wise, I'd say that Double Dash barely gives 65% at the outset.
So that's my beef. I'd like to hear what some of you think about this unlockable content phenomenon.
Back on the Michael Jackson watch, I read an article that really left me in disbelief. Let me just quote the first paragraph of the article:
An Australian entertainer has come to the defense of Michael Jackson, telling an Australian newspaper that he shared a bed with the U.S. pop star when he was a boy but nothing "strange" happened.
Ok, stop right there. He shared a bed with Michael Jackson when he was a boy...but nothing strange happened?
I can't be the only one who sees something incredibly wrong with that statement. Of course, we go on to find that the now 21 year-old former bedmate is a choreographer for Britney Spears and N-Sync, so I guess one must consider the source.
Alessandro wants to get in on what he calls "Jacko Massacre":
Ciao John, Thanks for diggin up the Michael Jackson scandal in your column, it gives me the perfect chance to discuss media hype and voyerism present in our news. Every television in the world has been ripping off the CNN for some time now starting with the low news bar on screen) by giving costant and worthless updates at every hour of the day. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to say that most news are useless and go along the lines of "Hi John, we see you are on the scene"
[commercial] [recap] [same video shown 34 times before]
What most people don't understand si that we've become news-junkies that need to have their latest fix on violence, horror and/or personal info on superstars. What is happening now is only the hard proof of my words: someone could have raped a child, and journos are only too eager of cracking jokes about a fallen pop star. It all makes you wonder if the world of Grand Theft Auto (or Manhunt for that matter) is really so far away from reality.
Keep on cookin' -Alez-
Word, Alez. I'm going to close this topic for today by saying that last week's tragic suicide bombings in Turkey, which killed scores of people, received second billing on CNN that day. Michael Jackson paying $3 Million in bail was first.
Happy Turkey Day! Hello all. I just wanted to take a moment from my turkey cooking to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. And if you're not big into Thanksgiving, well, have a happy day off. And if you're Canadian, or British, or Italian, or whatever, have a Happy Thursday!
Gator the Felon I'm not sure if I ever discussed my childhood obsession with skateboarding in this space, but let's just say I fancied myself to be a bit of a skate punk in my early teen years. It was the late eighties and skateboards were roughly the size of boat docks, and being an uncoordinated goofy kid from Wisconsin, I'll be the first to admit that I didn't exactly blaze the streets with my mad skillz. The closest I ever got to that was sporting a killer Christian Slater impression after watching Gleaming the Cube seventeen times at my buddy's house.
Tony Hawk was still huge back then (yes, he's that old) as was Steve Cabellero. But the guy that really impressed me was Mark "Gator" Ragowski. For some reason, in his later years of skating, he changed his name to Gator Mark Anthony, but I digress. I had a couple "Gator" model Vision boards as did my friends. We watched his skate videos obsessively between rounds of Skate or Die! on the NES, and hung Gator posters all over our basement walls.
As time went by, our obsession with Gator and skating faded, music became the center of my existence, and life went on.
So today I'm opening my mail and the various packages therein, and out pops this screener for a movie called Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator. Could it have been?
Sure enough.
The "Gator" in question was my boyhood idol. Somebody I looked to as a role model. "How did Gator fall?", I wondered. Eagerly, I popped the movie into my DVD player and watched the story unfold. The documentary interviews prominent skating legends past and present, as they discuss Gator's rise to fame and fortune. It was the stereotypical rags to riches story where fame, drugs, and alcohol all end up messing with a talented young man's life. It played out just like a Behind the Music episode. In fact, Gator even "found Jesus". Of course, he then raped and murdered his ex-girlfriend's best friend and buried her in the desert. But hey, what's so strange about that?
Talk about your falling stars, eh?
Well, there's another childhood icon down the tubes. Hopefully Michael Jackson'll beat the charges against him, because my youth is turning out to be way more f**ked up than I thought it was.
I Hate Snow There's really no nice way to put into words the way I feel before, during, and after the first real snowfall of the year. Before, I listen to the weather predictions, pretending not to believe their lies. Hoping that maybe this year we'll be spared. During, I just stare out the window fooling myself into thinking that it'll just be a thin blanket that will melt by the next day. And afterwards, I turn into a short-tempered grinch. I wait for the first person to ask me "Hey, how 'bout that snow?" so I can jack them in their unsuspecting face.
You'd think after living in this seasonly hell on earth for twenty-seven years I would not only get used to this annual shit-fall from the sky, hell, maybe I'd even start to like it. Unfortuntately, I just can't. What's to like about a season that forces two hour commutes to work and layering yourself up in ridiculous clothing just to walk to your car? How can I possibly come to terms with a season that pretty much guarantees that the sun will only appear for brief moments? And those moments are usually when I'm in a windowless store, buying a damn shovel.
Many of you might say, "But John, now you have an excuse to sit inside and play video games." To that I answer: I don't need an excuse. I just sit down and play whenever the hell I feel like it. I don't need Mother Nature to dump three feet of frozen white shit on my driveway as motivation for playing games.
And then come the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I generally love Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. What I hate are the two dozen required holiday parties and get-togethers. And now that I'm a married man, my holiday get-togethers have just doubled.
Let's discuss something that makes me happy, shall we?
Prince of Persia. I apologize for neglecting to discuss this priceless game sooner, but I've hardly been able to tear myself away from it. From the moment I saw it at the Ubi Soft booth during E3, there was no doubt that this sucker was special. Now that I've played the full version, I can tell you that it's the most wonderful gaming experience I've had in years. I don't think I've enjoyed a game this much since Ocarina of Time. The most magical thing about it is that not once over the entire experience did I not have fun. Every single moment of the game is just fun. Isn't that what a game is supposed to be?
Even when I'm surrounded by a hoard of enemies who are beating me into a bloody pulp, and that damn female companion of mine shoots me in the back with an arrow and says "Oops! Sorry.", I'm still having fun.
Last year's Sly Cooper blew my mind with his acrobatic moves and high-flying techniques. Amazingly, Sly's been one-upped by the Prince.
You have no excuse not to get this game.
So are you annoyed with our recent lack of content? This week will be a bit better, I promise. The relaunch is just in need of some tweaking (although some areas need a little larger "tweak" than others) and we'll be unleashing it on you soon. However, this week we won't leave you starved for entertainment. Brendon has a huge insider's look at Baldur's Gate and we'll also throw an Editor's Roundtable your way. Beyond that, the reviews will be rolling in quite steadily as well. We've got reviews for all of the Prince of Persia games, including the not-so-hot GBA version, as well as The Hobbit, True Crime, Morrowind GOTY Edition, and much more.
For those of you in the warmer climates, enjoy your sun. For the rest of us, I feel your pain.
