scavenger piglets
abusing their privilege
—free parmesan cheese
familiar tea
television entertains
a rainy Wednesday
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Mass Effect 2 Trailer
Youtube link
Not that ME2 needs more hype, but this trailer makes me wish this game had a CG series.
Why not, they did it with Dante's Inferno.
Not that ME2 needs more hype, but this trailer makes me wish this game had a CG series.
Why not, they did it with Dante's Inferno.
Mass Effect 2 Haiku Part 2 (February 23, 2010)
Grunt
Tank-bred for killing
blood-splattered face locked smiling
—only a baby
Zaeed Massani
Unlikely hero
pre-occupied with vengeance
—inferno grenade
Tali'Zorah vas Neema
Trapped in her space suite
overflowing with passion
She pines for Shepard
The Vanguard
all sides surrounded
both squad-mate casualties
nothing charge can't fix
Tank-bred for killing
blood-splattered face locked smiling
—only a baby
Zaeed Massani
Unlikely hero
pre-occupied with vengeance
—inferno grenade
Tali'Zorah vas Neema
Trapped in her space suite
overflowing with passion
She pines for Shepard
The Vanguard
all sides surrounded
both squad-mate casualties
nothing charge can't fix
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Dante's Inferno First Impressions
I am on the boss of Lust right now. This is the second circle out of nine. I am assuming they get longer as you go, so I am going to toss a number out and say I am 15% done with the game. So far I am pretty let down. The circle of Lust was probably the biggest let down since Fable II. I spent the entire circle in an elevator going up being attacked by monsters. I didn't see any people suffering, or any vast expanses of storms. Just an elevator taking me to the top of some tower where I am having a boss fight.
It has already become clear to me that Visceral games spent more time and money on hype and advertising than the actual game. I suppose that's a good strategy if you only want people to impulse one of your games and then never trust you again. Among the HUGE amount of press releases and information about this game out on the internet was a set of "Dev Diaries" where the developers revealed some cool stuff about the game, and each diary was themed to the nine circles. The gameplay/cutscene footage they showed for the circle of Lust wasn't in the actual circle of lust. They either cut it, or made JUST FOR THE FUCKING PRESS. It's really sad.
Anyway on to more specific complaints. There are (so far) three types of enemies: fodder, demons, and mini-bosses. Fodder are like zombies, and demon babies stuff like that. This is the set of enemies I have a big problem with. This game incorporates this mechanic where once enemies are wounded enough, you can press right trigger next to them and enter a sort of cut scene of you killing them. You don't have to do it this way, you can just keep beating them up until they explode, but punishing/absolving them gets you bonuses so you want to do it as often as possible. Now with fodder enemies you don't need to weaken them to enter this animation. You can simply press right trigger next to them and you immediately stab them with your scythe and are given the choice to punish or absolve (X or B). Once you do this, they die immediately. While you are in the animation you are invulnerable to attacks. So what happens if I get attacked by 40 fodder enemies? I press RT+X 40 times. What happens if I get attacked by 120 fodder enemies? I press RT+X 120 times. Are they for real? Did no one catch on to this? They should at least make me hit them a little first? So 80% of the enemies I have "fought" so far die in one hit, and during that one hit I am invulnerable. Boring. It's sweet that I have all these badass scythe combos though. Thanks.
I'll give the game credit where it's due though. The combat is amazing. The moves look beautiful and the combat is more fluid than any game I have played of this genre. Even if you are in the middle of a combo, you can press any other button to cancel out and evade, or block. You never get "stuck" doing some huge move. The boss fights are epic and cool. I look forward to more combat as I level up.
Here is my big concern. I played the demo of this game before it came out and I enjoyed the combat immensely. But once I got done with the demo all I could say was "What a terrible demo! It didn't even show my anything epic, or anything vast and infinite." Usually games with badass elements give you a taste of one of them up front. I am 15% done with the game and I haven't had a taste yet. I am afraid they have nothing to show me.
It has already become clear to me that Visceral games spent more time and money on hype and advertising than the actual game. I suppose that's a good strategy if you only want people to impulse one of your games and then never trust you again. Among the HUGE amount of press releases and information about this game out on the internet was a set of "Dev Diaries" where the developers revealed some cool stuff about the game, and each diary was themed to the nine circles. The gameplay/cutscene footage they showed for the circle of Lust wasn't in the actual circle of lust. They either cut it, or made JUST FOR THE FUCKING PRESS. It's really sad.
Anyway on to more specific complaints. There are (so far) three types of enemies: fodder, demons, and mini-bosses. Fodder are like zombies, and demon babies stuff like that. This is the set of enemies I have a big problem with. This game incorporates this mechanic where once enemies are wounded enough, you can press right trigger next to them and enter a sort of cut scene of you killing them. You don't have to do it this way, you can just keep beating them up until they explode, but punishing/absolving them gets you bonuses so you want to do it as often as possible. Now with fodder enemies you don't need to weaken them to enter this animation. You can simply press right trigger next to them and you immediately stab them with your scythe and are given the choice to punish or absolve (X or B). Once you do this, they die immediately. While you are in the animation you are invulnerable to attacks. So what happens if I get attacked by 40 fodder enemies? I press RT+X 40 times. What happens if I get attacked by 120 fodder enemies? I press RT+X 120 times. Are they for real? Did no one catch on to this? They should at least make me hit them a little first? So 80% of the enemies I have "fought" so far die in one hit, and during that one hit I am invulnerable. Boring. It's sweet that I have all these badass scythe combos though. Thanks.
I'll give the game credit where it's due though. The combat is amazing. The moves look beautiful and the combat is more fluid than any game I have played of this genre. Even if you are in the middle of a combo, you can press any other button to cancel out and evade, or block. You never get "stuck" doing some huge move. The boss fights are epic and cool. I look forward to more combat as I level up.
Here is my big concern. I played the demo of this game before it came out and I enjoyed the combat immensely. But once I got done with the demo all I could say was "What a terrible demo! It didn't even show my anything epic, or anything vast and infinite." Usually games with badass elements give you a taste of one of them up front. I am 15% done with the game and I haven't had a taste yet. I am afraid they have nothing to show me.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Ammunition and Innovation
Ever since I read the ammo article from Gausswerks (Out of Ammo) I have been giving ammo a lot of thought. Another thing that made me think deeper is how BioWare abandoned it's "infinite ammo" system from Mass Effect 1 in Mass Effect 2.
Quick recap: In ME1 your guns would overheat if you fired them to fast. They work similar to the plasma weapons from the Halo series. So you either had to hold off the trigger and let them cool, or let them vent for a few seconds after overheating. In ME2 they abandoned the system (not in concept though) and use standard ammo clips which run out. Why did they make this choice? I think it's because they realized that ammo adds tension, and tension is good.
What is ammunition in games? It's a way to kill bad guys of course, but in the end it's what keeps you alive. Ammunition is the ultimate realization of "a good offense is the best defense." Imagine you are playing a FPS and you run out of ammo and find yourself in a firefight. You are probably dead. In a case like this, ammo almost acts as a separate life bar. Most well designed games have none-ammo solutions like a knife or a chainsaw but we all know that if you have 0 clips and are forced to use the knife you are pretty much toast especially if you are a hardass playing on the hardest difficulty level. The risk of running out of ammo, which you need to defend your precious life bar, creates tension in your gaming experience. This tension is good. It makes the game more enjoyable because it demands that you as a player make more decisions. You need to choose which gun you use, which ammo to save and when it's safe enough to use the knife. It also pulls you to explore the levels in hopes of finding a hidden ammo stash. I love ammo, and I love being almost out of it.
On interesting innovation in regards to ammo is limiting how many weapons the player can carry. I feel Halo is a pioneer with this concept. It was the first game I ever played that used this limit, Gears of War also adopted the system. It definitely adds more realism and decision making to games. In Doom III you get to keep every gun you find. It's funny to imagine the Doom guy carrying a pistol, machine gun, mini gun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, BFG, and a chainsaw along with ammo clips for each one. Do you guys even have any idea how much a single rocket would weigh? Well in Halo every time you come across a weapon you need to decide if you want to give up one of your weapons to carry it. Each weapon has unique trade offs. Some are better for little guys, some better for big guys. Some have tons of ammo, others only have a little. The rocket launcher is the ideal example of trade-off. In Doom III once you get the Rocket Launcher you just have it. No matter what the situation you always have it, there is no tension there. In Halo you get a rocket launcher with six rockets and one other gun. The rocket launcher is a very polarized weapon, it is really good sometimes, and really useless other times compared to something like the battle rifle which is pretty good all of the time. Sometimes the rocket launcher will be dead weight and you will wish you didn't decide to lug it around, until the tank comes. But if you didn't take it you will have an easier time fighting all the other stuff until the tank comes. That tension is excellent.
Going more into depth about ammo, I want to talk about the reload. It's something I didn't think about until now. Not all games deal with reloading the same. Wolfenstien and Doom/Doom II back in the old PC days didn't even have a reload button. You had 145 rounds of chain gun ammo and they would magically fly out of your pockets into the barrel of the gun until you were out without a single reload animation. This was very simplistic, and it worked for the time but modern games have a little more realism.
Now you have to reload. Everyone who has played a shooter knows that reloading in the middle of a fight sucks. Deciding when to reload, looking for an opening to reload, and looking for cover to reload in all make the gaming experience more dynamic. It allows more choices for the player, and forces you to adapt to a wider variety of situations. This creates more fun.
One noteworthy game series I wanted to highlight is Bungie's pre-Halo Marathon series. An exceptional shooter with an excellent story and a unique reloading mechanic. In Marathon there is no reload command. All the guns work in clips, but you can't reload until you empty the entire clip. So if you have one bullet left in your eight bullet clip then you just need to shoot that bullet off and insert a new clip. This is much more realistic than how most shooters deal with ammo. They allow you to reload anytime you feel like it. You can hide around the corner, shoot a 3-round burst from your SMG and then while hiding take 3 bullets out of one of the clips you picked up, and insert them into the clip currently in your gun. Of course it's silly to reload partial clips with no consequences, which is why Marathon is so interesting. Playing Marathon presents a deal tension. The risk of running out of ammo is very real, but reloading in the middle of combat also puts you in serious risk. So what do you do when you have three shots left in your pistol, and 2 extra clips on your belt? You will stumble into a battle and be forced to reload after three shots. The only alternative is to just fire off the three shots and totally waste them just so you can be prepared with a new clip. You constantly faced this situation in this game with the pistol, the assault rifle and especially the grenade launcher. I think this element added a lot to the game and I wouldn't mind seeing similar reload mechanic explored in the future.
What am I getting at? Ammunition shouldn't be an afterthought. ME2 is catching a bunch of complaints for adding a "stupid ammo" system. These people are missing the point. ME1 had an ammo system which reduced tension, and decision making. Simply put, in ME1 you never ever ran out of sniper rifle rounds. You never needed to look for or buy more, and you never needed to conserve it or worry about running out. Boring. In ME2, you can carry limited rounds, and need to choose what you snipe. When you are a sniper and run out of sniper rounds, it's as if you are playing a totally different game.
Anyone who doesn't agree is stupid.
Quick recap: In ME1 your guns would overheat if you fired them to fast. They work similar to the plasma weapons from the Halo series. So you either had to hold off the trigger and let them cool, or let them vent for a few seconds after overheating. In ME2 they abandoned the system (not in concept though) and use standard ammo clips which run out. Why did they make this choice? I think it's because they realized that ammo adds tension, and tension is good.
What is ammunition in games? It's a way to kill bad guys of course, but in the end it's what keeps you alive. Ammunition is the ultimate realization of "a good offense is the best defense." Imagine you are playing a FPS and you run out of ammo and find yourself in a firefight. You are probably dead. In a case like this, ammo almost acts as a separate life bar. Most well designed games have none-ammo solutions like a knife or a chainsaw but we all know that if you have 0 clips and are forced to use the knife you are pretty much toast especially if you are a hardass playing on the hardest difficulty level. The risk of running out of ammo, which you need to defend your precious life bar, creates tension in your gaming experience. This tension is good. It makes the game more enjoyable because it demands that you as a player make more decisions. You need to choose which gun you use, which ammo to save and when it's safe enough to use the knife. It also pulls you to explore the levels in hopes of finding a hidden ammo stash. I love ammo, and I love being almost out of it.
On interesting innovation in regards to ammo is limiting how many weapons the player can carry. I feel Halo is a pioneer with this concept. It was the first game I ever played that used this limit, Gears of War also adopted the system. It definitely adds more realism and decision making to games. In Doom III you get to keep every gun you find. It's funny to imagine the Doom guy carrying a pistol, machine gun, mini gun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, BFG, and a chainsaw along with ammo clips for each one. Do you guys even have any idea how much a single rocket would weigh? Well in Halo every time you come across a weapon you need to decide if you want to give up one of your weapons to carry it. Each weapon has unique trade offs. Some are better for little guys, some better for big guys. Some have tons of ammo, others only have a little. The rocket launcher is the ideal example of trade-off. In Doom III once you get the Rocket Launcher you just have it. No matter what the situation you always have it, there is no tension there. In Halo you get a rocket launcher with six rockets and one other gun. The rocket launcher is a very polarized weapon, it is really good sometimes, and really useless other times compared to something like the battle rifle which is pretty good all of the time. Sometimes the rocket launcher will be dead weight and you will wish you didn't decide to lug it around, until the tank comes. But if you didn't take it you will have an easier time fighting all the other stuff until the tank comes. That tension is excellent.
Going more into depth about ammo, I want to talk about the reload. It's something I didn't think about until now. Not all games deal with reloading the same. Wolfenstien and Doom/Doom II back in the old PC days didn't even have a reload button. You had 145 rounds of chain gun ammo and they would magically fly out of your pockets into the barrel of the gun until you were out without a single reload animation. This was very simplistic, and it worked for the time but modern games have a little more realism.
Now you have to reload. Everyone who has played a shooter knows that reloading in the middle of a fight sucks. Deciding when to reload, looking for an opening to reload, and looking for cover to reload in all make the gaming experience more dynamic. It allows more choices for the player, and forces you to adapt to a wider variety of situations. This creates more fun.
One noteworthy game series I wanted to highlight is Bungie's pre-Halo Marathon series. An exceptional shooter with an excellent story and a unique reloading mechanic. In Marathon there is no reload command. All the guns work in clips, but you can't reload until you empty the entire clip. So if you have one bullet left in your eight bullet clip then you just need to shoot that bullet off and insert a new clip. This is much more realistic than how most shooters deal with ammo. They allow you to reload anytime you feel like it. You can hide around the corner, shoot a 3-round burst from your SMG and then while hiding take 3 bullets out of one of the clips you picked up, and insert them into the clip currently in your gun. Of course it's silly to reload partial clips with no consequences, which is why Marathon is so interesting. Playing Marathon presents a deal tension. The risk of running out of ammo is very real, but reloading in the middle of combat also puts you in serious risk. So what do you do when you have three shots left in your pistol, and 2 extra clips on your belt? You will stumble into a battle and be forced to reload after three shots. The only alternative is to just fire off the three shots and totally waste them just so you can be prepared with a new clip. You constantly faced this situation in this game with the pistol, the assault rifle and especially the grenade launcher. I think this element added a lot to the game and I wouldn't mind seeing similar reload mechanic explored in the future.
What am I getting at? Ammunition shouldn't be an afterthought. ME2 is catching a bunch of complaints for adding a "stupid ammo" system. These people are missing the point. ME1 had an ammo system which reduced tension, and decision making. Simply put, in ME1 you never ever ran out of sniper rifle rounds. You never needed to look for or buy more, and you never needed to conserve it or worry about running out. Boring. In ME2, you can carry limited rounds, and need to choose what you snipe. When you are a sniper and run out of sniper rounds, it's as if you are playing a totally different game.
Anyone who doesn't agree is stupid.
Mass Effect 2 Haiku (February 5, 2010)
Miranda Lawson
super genius
engineered perfection
please reveal your tits
Jacob Taylor
Soft-spoken fellow
fighting for the galaxy
—warrior poet
Mordin Solus
Courageous doctor
buried in his distant past
—an atrocity
super genius
engineered perfection
please reveal your tits
Jacob Taylor
Soft-spoken fellow
fighting for the galaxy
—warrior poet
Mordin Solus
Courageous doctor
buried in his distant past
—an atrocity
Friday, February 05, 2010
Mass Effect 2, a Mass Rebuttal
I have been reading some stuff on various forums about ME2. The complaints especially. I don't agree with most of them so I decided to post a rebuttal to a few. There are some that are legit however.
"Ammo Clips Suck"
ME1 didn't have ammo. In ME1 your guns would fire until overheating, and then you could have to let them vent or cool for a period of time. During this period you couldn't fire that gun and had to hide behind cover or switch to a different gun. In reality I pretty much always let it vent and never switched guns. Or better yet, fire the gun carefully and never reach the point of overheating. What was the effect of this method? You always used the same gun, which ever is best. There is never a reason to change guns unless it's practical like going from sniper to a close range weapon. Boring. The bottom line is ammo is fun. Ammo adds a tension to your game. Not having infinite sniper or shotgun rounds can make you think differently about how to go about battles. In ME2 I often find myself out of sniper rounds and having to drastically change my plans. Ammo conservation also plays a role. Finishing wounded and fragile enemies with a worse weapon is something to consider and adds strategic depth. The addition of ammo in ME2 makes combat much more dynamic.
"Planet Scanning Sucks"
I didn't hate scanning as much as other people did. I never did it all that much, but I agree it is boring. It is much faster than ME1's Mako planet explorations. But it isn't something you need to do. It's extra, it's grinding. The only reason you need to scan planets is to get minerals to upgrade your armor and weapons. This isn't something that needs to be done. On my first playthrough I probably only scanned for a total of 2 hours to get every upgrade in the game. I did this blind without any guides as well. You can easily find a guide online and only scan the best planets for all your mineral needs and spend half the time doing it. But there are two factors that you should consider when complaining about this. The first is, in ME2 there is absolutely no need to grind. You never need to "level up" as you are never "underleveled" part of the brilliant enemy scaling system Boiware uses. The second thing is, on your second play-through you get a big bonus in starting resources and you likely hardly have to do any scanning at all. It's a minor inconvenience yes, but not everything in an RPG can be super mega fun or it won't ever feel like you earned anything.
"lvl 30 cap"
Honestly I didn't even know there was a cap, I never reached it in my first playthrough. But there are hardly enough skills to even use that many points? This isn't something I see as a problem but at the same time I am not sure why it's there. I don't see any problem with allowing you to gain infinite experience and just keep getting stronger and scale all enemies accordingly. I am assuming there is some reason for the cap, but I don't know what it is.
"Unappealing characters"
This one is simply false. The characters in this game are all interesting, well developed and wonderfully voice acted. Some of them even develop and change as the story goes on. If you just don't like the characters, thats fine. But this is hardly something to complain about. The game has 12 characters how can you find them all unappealing? They are all so different.
"Less choices for weapons and armor"
Another complaint that is totally wrong. ME1's weapon/armor system was HORRIBLE. It was my biggest complaint. ME1 has four weapons: pistol, assault rifle, shotgun and sniper. Then each other those had thirty iterations where each was better than the last. So lets just call them upgrades. Four weapons with 30 upgrades each. ME1 did have different attachments you could use which was cool and I am sorry to see that go, but that was replaced by ammo skills in ME2 and thats fine. Armor was the same: heavy armor, light armor and medium armor. You ran around with armor VIII and sniper rifle VIII hoping to find armor IX and sniper IX. When you finally found them they acted exactly the same as the previous ones but did slightly more damage. So did ME1 have 200 guns? No, it had 4. ME2 however has more guns, it has different types of assault rifles and sniper rifles and they actually act differently. You can actually make a choice on which is better rather than always just picking the best. There is also a large number of heavy weapons which all act totally differently. There could be more unique guns, but I am sure they will be DLCed in.
"No XP for Killing Enemies/Hacking"
This complaint is silly for two reasons. The first is, ME2 uses scaling enemy difficulty so you never need to grind. There is no need to just kill re-spawning enemies to gain XP. I am not sure if enemies even respawn anywhere in ME1 or ME2. The only enemy I remember respawning was the thresher maw on random planets. But when you complete a quest in ME1 you killed a finite number of bad guys, and got experience for them. They didn't respawn. In ME2 you killed a finite number of enemies but get the total XP at the end of the mission. It's really not a big deal.
"Lack of ME1 to ME2 Carryover"
This is a legitimate complaint however it's clear why they diminished this (although they did overhype it). If you need to have played ME1 in order to understand ME2 then you are asking consumers to invest 120$ and well over 60 hours into the series. This would be a big hurdle in getting people to buy this game. ME3 will face even more of a problem with many people feeling like they can't buy it if they didn't play 1 and 2.
"Loading Time"
These complaints are silly. No one enjoys loading times and everyone wants the minimized. It's not like Bioware "put" them in and made them extra long.
"Ammo Clips Suck"
ME1 didn't have ammo. In ME1 your guns would fire until overheating, and then you could have to let them vent or cool for a period of time. During this period you couldn't fire that gun and had to hide behind cover or switch to a different gun. In reality I pretty much always let it vent and never switched guns. Or better yet, fire the gun carefully and never reach the point of overheating. What was the effect of this method? You always used the same gun, which ever is best. There is never a reason to change guns unless it's practical like going from sniper to a close range weapon. Boring. The bottom line is ammo is fun. Ammo adds a tension to your game. Not having infinite sniper or shotgun rounds can make you think differently about how to go about battles. In ME2 I often find myself out of sniper rounds and having to drastically change my plans. Ammo conservation also plays a role. Finishing wounded and fragile enemies with a worse weapon is something to consider and adds strategic depth. The addition of ammo in ME2 makes combat much more dynamic.
"Planet Scanning Sucks"
I didn't hate scanning as much as other people did. I never did it all that much, but I agree it is boring. It is much faster than ME1's Mako planet explorations. But it isn't something you need to do. It's extra, it's grinding. The only reason you need to scan planets is to get minerals to upgrade your armor and weapons. This isn't something that needs to be done. On my first playthrough I probably only scanned for a total of 2 hours to get every upgrade in the game. I did this blind without any guides as well. You can easily find a guide online and only scan the best planets for all your mineral needs and spend half the time doing it. But there are two factors that you should consider when complaining about this. The first is, in ME2 there is absolutely no need to grind. You never need to "level up" as you are never "underleveled" part of the brilliant enemy scaling system Boiware uses. The second thing is, on your second play-through you get a big bonus in starting resources and you likely hardly have to do any scanning at all. It's a minor inconvenience yes, but not everything in an RPG can be super mega fun or it won't ever feel like you earned anything.
"lvl 30 cap"
Honestly I didn't even know there was a cap, I never reached it in my first playthrough. But there are hardly enough skills to even use that many points? This isn't something I see as a problem but at the same time I am not sure why it's there. I don't see any problem with allowing you to gain infinite experience and just keep getting stronger and scale all enemies accordingly. I am assuming there is some reason for the cap, but I don't know what it is.
"Unappealing characters"
This one is simply false. The characters in this game are all interesting, well developed and wonderfully voice acted. Some of them even develop and change as the story goes on. If you just don't like the characters, thats fine. But this is hardly something to complain about. The game has 12 characters how can you find them all unappealing? They are all so different.
"Less choices for weapons and armor"
Another complaint that is totally wrong. ME1's weapon/armor system was HORRIBLE. It was my biggest complaint. ME1 has four weapons: pistol, assault rifle, shotgun and sniper. Then each other those had thirty iterations where each was better than the last. So lets just call them upgrades. Four weapons with 30 upgrades each. ME1 did have different attachments you could use which was cool and I am sorry to see that go, but that was replaced by ammo skills in ME2 and thats fine. Armor was the same: heavy armor, light armor and medium armor. You ran around with armor VIII and sniper rifle VIII hoping to find armor IX and sniper IX. When you finally found them they acted exactly the same as the previous ones but did slightly more damage. So did ME1 have 200 guns? No, it had 4. ME2 however has more guns, it has different types of assault rifles and sniper rifles and they actually act differently. You can actually make a choice on which is better rather than always just picking the best. There is also a large number of heavy weapons which all act totally differently. There could be more unique guns, but I am sure they will be DLCed in.
"No XP for Killing Enemies/Hacking"
This complaint is silly for two reasons. The first is, ME2 uses scaling enemy difficulty so you never need to grind. There is no need to just kill re-spawning enemies to gain XP. I am not sure if enemies even respawn anywhere in ME1 or ME2. The only enemy I remember respawning was the thresher maw on random planets. But when you complete a quest in ME1 you killed a finite number of bad guys, and got experience for them. They didn't respawn. In ME2 you killed a finite number of enemies but get the total XP at the end of the mission. It's really not a big deal.
"Lack of ME1 to ME2 Carryover"
This is a legitimate complaint however it's clear why they diminished this (although they did overhype it). If you need to have played ME1 in order to understand ME2 then you are asking consumers to invest 120$ and well over 60 hours into the series. This would be a big hurdle in getting people to buy this game. ME3 will face even more of a problem with many people feeling like they can't buy it if they didn't play 1 and 2.
"Loading Time"
These complaints are silly. No one enjoys loading times and everyone wants the minimized. It's not like Bioware "put" them in and made them extra long.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Out of Ammo
Found a cool article about the abundance of ammunition in video games. The comments are pretty interesting too.
Out of Ammo
Out of Ammo
Mass Effect 2, Impressions
I just finished Mass Effect 2 and I am ready to give my first impressions. I will just come out and say that this is probably the best RPG I have ever played. It's better than FF3, better than Chrono Trigger and better than Secret of Mana. There I said it. There are two main reasons this is so.
RPGs usually have two elements, fighting and plot/story development. Usually the plot/story development is the boring part. You need to read tons of boxes of static white text. Sometimes they try to spice it up and of course it helps if the story is compelling. Mass Effect's plot/story modes are the best part of the game. It is fun to have conversations and listen to the story. Mass Effect is fully voice acted, and when you are selecting which dialogue option you are going to choose it's only a 2-word summery. Basically you are choosing the attitude with which you will speak, and what Shepard actually says is a surprise to even you. So on your first play-through, you wont even have the opportunity to read what the other options are. This encourages a second play-through and still keeps it fresh.
The second reason, which is a genius BioWare invention (I think) is enemy scaling. Ever since I played Knights of the Old Republic I have loved this concept. It works like this, the enemies are scaled to your level to matter where you are. So you never have to grind to level up, and you never out-level the enemies to the point were the game is a cake walk. This allows the game to be really open-ended and allow you to complete the various story missions and side quests in any order you see fit and always have a healthy challenge. The is so good for reply value. Because enemies level up similar to you, higher level enemies have more skills and better weapons then low level enemies. So if you do quests in different order on your second play, you will encounter totally different situations. Parts of the game that you felt were easy will instead be hard because all of the sudden now the Krogans have incendiary ammo, or the Asari now have Shockwave.
RPGs usually have two elements, fighting and plot/story development. Usually the plot/story development is the boring part. You need to read tons of boxes of static white text. Sometimes they try to spice it up and of course it helps if the story is compelling. Mass Effect's plot/story modes are the best part of the game. It is fun to have conversations and listen to the story. Mass Effect is fully voice acted, and when you are selecting which dialogue option you are going to choose it's only a 2-word summery. Basically you are choosing the attitude with which you will speak, and what Shepard actually says is a surprise to even you. So on your first play-through, you wont even have the opportunity to read what the other options are. This encourages a second play-through and still keeps it fresh.
The second reason, which is a genius BioWare invention (I think) is enemy scaling. Ever since I played Knights of the Old Republic I have loved this concept. It works like this, the enemies are scaled to your level to matter where you are. So you never have to grind to level up, and you never out-level the enemies to the point were the game is a cake walk. This allows the game to be really open-ended and allow you to complete the various story missions and side quests in any order you see fit and always have a healthy challenge. The is so good for reply value. Because enemies level up similar to you, higher level enemies have more skills and better weapons then low level enemies. So if you do quests in different order on your second play, you will encounter totally different situations. Parts of the game that you felt were easy will instead be hard because all of the sudden now the Krogans have incendiary ammo, or the Asari now have Shockwave.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Good and Evil in Video Games
If you fallow the RPG world then you are probably as sick as me of the whole "good or evil" paradigm. I haven't played every game but I have played some major ones. Primarily the BioWare RPGs (Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect) and Fable. KOTOR was the first game I ever played (or so I thought) that allowed players to follow the light side or dark side of the force. I remember thinking it was kind of neat but my first character was light side for tradition's sake. Then I tried the dark side, I found it to be terribly boring and predictable. The most shocking was how little it effected the story. Since then I have payed close attention to games that implement this and I have hated it every time. It never makes any sense, and it does not make for interesting gameplay.
I remember reading an AD&D Dungeon Master's Manuel once that although it's possible to run an "evil" campaign, it is not recommended. The D&D fantasy world is meant to have a few powerful heros fighting hordes of evil monsters. These are pretty much the people who invented role playing. It just feels more natural to play a hero than a villain. The story is more believable and the writing can be more interesting. You want specifics? Very well, spoiler alert.
Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) as I said was the first game that let you be evil (or so I thought!) in this game you play a regular shmoe who finds himself in the middle of a Jedi struggle. You are rescued from disaster by Carth, a military pilot. You and Carth need to then rescue goody-two-shoes jedi Bastilla. Then the three of you escape the planet and you discover that you have the force. So the goody-two-shoes jedi train you to be a jedi. This game contains a light/dark side meter in the character screen. All the characters have one. When you do evil things like threaten people with bodily harm to get your way, or use the force to force people to do what you want you get dark points. Also some quests have two solutions the typical solution is logical and good, while the other is usually very contrived and maniacally evil. Here is an example that really stand out with me. In KOTOR there is a woman who lost her robot (C3-PO type) and she asks you to get him back. You find the robot in a field being attacked by some beasts. You can kill the beasts and engage the robot in conversation. There is a little more to it but basically your choices are "Come with me back to your owner" or "Kill him." Why would you kill this robot? What purpose does it serve to your agenda to kill him? Just blatant murder? Well i'll tell you why, if you murder him for no reason you get evil points, if you don't murder him, you get good points. See in this game, and all the BioWare games you are rewarded with evil points for committing evil deeds. The more evil you get the more evil quests are unlocked and the more powerful your powers become. But the evil acts are so poorly written it really dumbs down the plot of the game. Also when I first started going down the evil path I was excited thinking maybe I can join forces with the end boss, and have the ending play out totally differently. Nope the ending is the same. The only difference is, instead of killing Malak to stop him from destroying the universe, you kill Malak in order to take over his roll of destroying the universe. The game plays out exactly the same except for the final cutscene. Yawn. STILL! this isn't my biggest problem. My biggest problem is this, it doesn't make sense to the story of the game for the player to be evil. Your closest allies, Carth and Bastilla would NEVER allow you to commit cold-blooded murder. It would be like Han Solo and Obi Wan standing by while Luke Skywalker just cut down a bartender because he asked to see his ID. They would fight your character to the death instead of allowing him to threaten and murder people because you can look at both of their "Light/Dark" indicators and see they are both 95%+ light side! In the LEAST they would refuse to travel with you, and go thier separate ways. Which actually would make the game really cool. If you commit enough evil your allies turn on you and you have to fight them but no. They just chime in with "Using your force powers like that is on the path of the dark side..." Gee thanks Bastilla. The other funny thing about this game is, before you even get any jedi training, it's possible to build up a pretty solid evil reputation, so by the time you meet the jedi council you are pretty obviously evil, red-aura and all. The five jedi elders will still give you jedi training and give you a light saber and ask you if you "Understand the jedi code" to which you can reply "yes." "no." and my personal favorite "(Lie) Yes."
Jade Empire shares the exact same problems with truly good allies that stand by and do nothing as you insult and torment defenseless villagers. It also included contrived over the top evil quest solutions.
Mass Effect does a much better job. None of the "Renegade" quest solutions seem contrived or overly evil, and all of them can be justified with logic. I applaud Bioware for getting it right in this game. In Mass Effect you take the path of a Paragon or a Renegade, which pretty much means Captian Jean-Luc Picard or Worf style. It's like this, lets say there is a terrorist who has the remote control to a bomb in his pocket, and the bomb will kill 1,000 people. He is holding a woman hostage saying let me out of here or I will kill her. Worf would just shoot a bullet through the woman into the terrorist because saving 1000 people is more important than one woman. Jean-Luc would probably let him go and secure the woman's safety first and then find another way to stop the terrorist. This is a wonderful way to treat a game because you are never doing anything blatantly evil and out of character. You decide your preferred way of dealing with a truly interesting situation. However this game too pressures you to maximize your paragon or renegade points, and seems to dissuade you from playing a more balanced character. An unfortunate choice. It uses these paragon and renegade points to adjust your alignment and then rewards you with additional dialogue choices if you have acquired enough of these blue or red points. But only a finite number of these point are available total, so it's not possible to be granted all of the options without committing to one side. Also the paragon and renegade specific dialogue options are color coded blue and red (the colors themselves are tacky) and it makes the whole idea feel overly gimmicky.
The other game that really hyped it's morality choices is Fable. In Fable you go to a place called the Hero's Guild to train and gain missions. I guess villagers go to the Hero's guild and place requests for heros to help them stop giant beetles, or evil wizards. The weird thing is, bandit groups and criminals ALSO post requests at the HERO'S GUILD! Asking for help raiding towns and murdering villagers. Yeah that makes sense. All of the hero's guild emplyees, and the GuildMaster himself are clearly good guys, but they allow bandits to put in a mission called "Massacre Oakvale" how fucking stupid. The best way to become evil in Fable is just to go around murdering everyone you see for no reason. Being evil in Fable gets you horns and a demonic looking face and people run from you. Once again it has no effect on the plot of the game. The actual evil quests are totally shallow, and not all quests have evil solutions. Basically the evil path of Fable feels rushed, almost like a throw in. They should have just left it out. One of the problems in this game that makes it so shallow is the guards in the town can't stop you. You can walk into a town, murder all the guards and then have your way with the entire town. It doesn't even matter what level you are, the guards can't stop you. BioWare games do a better job with this, in those games you simply can't attack anyone in a town unless it's an activated event. So you can't just kill merchants. Fable doesn't have this balance and you can just go killing. I am fine with killing, look at my happy face when I am going on a spree in Grand Theft Auto. But in GTA if you get 5 stars on you, you are a goner. The cops will own you. In Fable you own the cops. Where is the fun?
It wasn't until I starting thinking about this stuff in depth that I realized there was one game that did it right. Fallout. I have never played Fallout 3, only the old school 1 and 2 so will be refering to those. There are several reasons why doing evil deeds worked in Fallout in a way it doesn't work in other games. I think the world itself is the best reason. It's a world that is mostly devoid of laws and doesn't have a strong sense of morality. The Starwars universe doesn't allow for any ambiguity, there are Jedi and Sith it's clear cut. Even Mass Effect has the galactic council and evil terrorists. In Fallout there is only your people, and everyone else. It's true that Vault 13 is an organized and civil community, but people on the outside world are savages and mutants. It's easy to consider yourself and your quest to save your vault more important then the petty laws of the outsiders. In Fallout you can deal with situations any way you see fit, for any reason you want, and no one is going to judge you. You can bust into the crime bosses building, kill all the guards and kill him just because you don't agree with what he is doing. You can even kill all the gamblers playing in his casino because you don't agree with that. You can join the crime boss and help him do some minor jobs, or you can help eliminate the law enforcement just because crime pays better and you need money. You can even work for the crime boss to gain his confidence and bring some hard evidence to the law enforcer to bring the boss down the legitimate way. The best part is, it doesn't matter! Nobody cares except for the immediate characters involved. You don't get a good/evil reward, just a feeling of accomplishment in whatever way you decided to do it.
I remember reading an AD&D Dungeon Master's Manuel once that although it's possible to run an "evil" campaign, it is not recommended. The D&D fantasy world is meant to have a few powerful heros fighting hordes of evil monsters. These are pretty much the people who invented role playing. It just feels more natural to play a hero than a villain. The story is more believable and the writing can be more interesting. You want specifics? Very well, spoiler alert.
Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) as I said was the first game that let you be evil (or so I thought!) in this game you play a regular shmoe who finds himself in the middle of a Jedi struggle. You are rescued from disaster by Carth, a military pilot. You and Carth need to then rescue goody-two-shoes jedi Bastilla. Then the three of you escape the planet and you discover that you have the force. So the goody-two-shoes jedi train you to be a jedi. This game contains a light/dark side meter in the character screen. All the characters have one. When you do evil things like threaten people with bodily harm to get your way, or use the force to force people to do what you want you get dark points. Also some quests have two solutions the typical solution is logical and good, while the other is usually very contrived and maniacally evil. Here is an example that really stand out with me. In KOTOR there is a woman who lost her robot (C3-PO type) and she asks you to get him back. You find the robot in a field being attacked by some beasts. You can kill the beasts and engage the robot in conversation. There is a little more to it but basically your choices are "Come with me back to your owner" or "Kill him." Why would you kill this robot? What purpose does it serve to your agenda to kill him? Just blatant murder? Well i'll tell you why, if you murder him for no reason you get evil points, if you don't murder him, you get good points. See in this game, and all the BioWare games you are rewarded with evil points for committing evil deeds. The more evil you get the more evil quests are unlocked and the more powerful your powers become. But the evil acts are so poorly written it really dumbs down the plot of the game. Also when I first started going down the evil path I was excited thinking maybe I can join forces with the end boss, and have the ending play out totally differently. Nope the ending is the same. The only difference is, instead of killing Malak to stop him from destroying the universe, you kill Malak in order to take over his roll of destroying the universe. The game plays out exactly the same except for the final cutscene. Yawn. STILL! this isn't my biggest problem. My biggest problem is this, it doesn't make sense to the story of the game for the player to be evil. Your closest allies, Carth and Bastilla would NEVER allow you to commit cold-blooded murder. It would be like Han Solo and Obi Wan standing by while Luke Skywalker just cut down a bartender because he asked to see his ID. They would fight your character to the death instead of allowing him to threaten and murder people because you can look at both of their "Light/Dark" indicators and see they are both 95%+ light side! In the LEAST they would refuse to travel with you, and go thier separate ways. Which actually would make the game really cool. If you commit enough evil your allies turn on you and you have to fight them but no. They just chime in with "Using your force powers like that is on the path of the dark side..." Gee thanks Bastilla. The other funny thing about this game is, before you even get any jedi training, it's possible to build up a pretty solid evil reputation, so by the time you meet the jedi council you are pretty obviously evil, red-aura and all. The five jedi elders will still give you jedi training and give you a light saber and ask you if you "Understand the jedi code" to which you can reply "yes." "no." and my personal favorite "(Lie) Yes."
Jade Empire shares the exact same problems with truly good allies that stand by and do nothing as you insult and torment defenseless villagers. It also included contrived over the top evil quest solutions.
Mass Effect does a much better job. None of the "Renegade" quest solutions seem contrived or overly evil, and all of them can be justified with logic. I applaud Bioware for getting it right in this game. In Mass Effect you take the path of a Paragon or a Renegade, which pretty much means Captian Jean-Luc Picard or Worf style. It's like this, lets say there is a terrorist who has the remote control to a bomb in his pocket, and the bomb will kill 1,000 people. He is holding a woman hostage saying let me out of here or I will kill her. Worf would just shoot a bullet through the woman into the terrorist because saving 1000 people is more important than one woman. Jean-Luc would probably let him go and secure the woman's safety first and then find another way to stop the terrorist. This is a wonderful way to treat a game because you are never doing anything blatantly evil and out of character. You decide your preferred way of dealing with a truly interesting situation. However this game too pressures you to maximize your paragon or renegade points, and seems to dissuade you from playing a more balanced character. An unfortunate choice. It uses these paragon and renegade points to adjust your alignment and then rewards you with additional dialogue choices if you have acquired enough of these blue or red points. But only a finite number of these point are available total, so it's not possible to be granted all of the options without committing to one side. Also the paragon and renegade specific dialogue options are color coded blue and red (the colors themselves are tacky) and it makes the whole idea feel overly gimmicky.
The other game that really hyped it's morality choices is Fable. In Fable you go to a place called the Hero's Guild to train and gain missions. I guess villagers go to the Hero's guild and place requests for heros to help them stop giant beetles, or evil wizards. The weird thing is, bandit groups and criminals ALSO post requests at the HERO'S GUILD! Asking for help raiding towns and murdering villagers. Yeah that makes sense. All of the hero's guild emplyees, and the GuildMaster himself are clearly good guys, but they allow bandits to put in a mission called "Massacre Oakvale" how fucking stupid. The best way to become evil in Fable is just to go around murdering everyone you see for no reason. Being evil in Fable gets you horns and a demonic looking face and people run from you. Once again it has no effect on the plot of the game. The actual evil quests are totally shallow, and not all quests have evil solutions. Basically the evil path of Fable feels rushed, almost like a throw in. They should have just left it out. One of the problems in this game that makes it so shallow is the guards in the town can't stop you. You can walk into a town, murder all the guards and then have your way with the entire town. It doesn't even matter what level you are, the guards can't stop you. BioWare games do a better job with this, in those games you simply can't attack anyone in a town unless it's an activated event. So you can't just kill merchants. Fable doesn't have this balance and you can just go killing. I am fine with killing, look at my happy face when I am going on a spree in Grand Theft Auto. But in GTA if you get 5 stars on you, you are a goner. The cops will own you. In Fable you own the cops. Where is the fun?
It wasn't until I starting thinking about this stuff in depth that I realized there was one game that did it right. Fallout. I have never played Fallout 3, only the old school 1 and 2 so will be refering to those. There are several reasons why doing evil deeds worked in Fallout in a way it doesn't work in other games. I think the world itself is the best reason. It's a world that is mostly devoid of laws and doesn't have a strong sense of morality. The Starwars universe doesn't allow for any ambiguity, there are Jedi and Sith it's clear cut. Even Mass Effect has the galactic council and evil terrorists. In Fallout there is only your people, and everyone else. It's true that Vault 13 is an organized and civil community, but people on the outside world are savages and mutants. It's easy to consider yourself and your quest to save your vault more important then the petty laws of the outsiders. In Fallout you can deal with situations any way you see fit, for any reason you want, and no one is going to judge you. You can bust into the crime bosses building, kill all the guards and kill him just because you don't agree with what he is doing. You can even kill all the gamblers playing in his casino because you don't agree with that. You can join the crime boss and help him do some minor jobs, or you can help eliminate the law enforcement just because crime pays better and you need money. You can even work for the crime boss to gain his confidence and bring some hard evidence to the law enforcer to bring the boss down the legitimate way. The best part is, it doesn't matter! Nobody cares except for the immediate characters involved. You don't get a good/evil reward, just a feeling of accomplishment in whatever way you decided to do it.
Closed on Tuesdays (January 26, 2009)
Indian zombies
donning traditional garb
kiss surabhi's lock
groups of Indians
travel from their cars and back
frostbit parking lot
wasted lunch break
quest for Indian buffet
locked door doesn't care
donning traditional garb
kiss surabhi's lock
groups of Indians
travel from their cars and back
frostbit parking lot
wasted lunch break
quest for Indian buffet
locked door doesn't care
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Computerless (December 15, 2009)
Torn from a loved one
I stand lonely and alone
computerlessness
love expressed in hugs
I'm forced to restrain myself
else you will be crushed
I stand lonely and alone
computerlessness
love expressed in hugs
I'm forced to restrain myself
else you will be crushed
"Throw in some plates will ya?"
Here is the policy at Umbria regarding plates. Our delivery charge is a meager $2 no matter how large the order is. Some people think that plates and forks and stuff are automatically included with orders. Sometimes that is the case, and other times it isn't. You need to be aware of how that works when you order, it's easy to ask about. So at Umbria for a "set" (plate and a packet that includes a knife, fork, napkins, salt and peppers) we charge thirty-five cents. It's not unreasonable. For just plates and napkins we charge fifteen cents.
Many times companies have a budget, say $150. They call and they ask us to work with them jamming as much food into the budget as possible usually this ends up with us giving them some kind of discount. We are fine with that for the most part. But when they set up the whole order, and hey are already getting 10-30$ off, the next day, they call and say "Oh yeah, throw in some plates and forks and stuff too will you?"
After explaining that those cost extra they get angry with me. They think they should be part of the deal "Other places throw them in." Well other places have a 10$ "catering fee" which we don't. You know you really can't win. If we charge a catering fee, then we got people bargaining with us to lower it if they only need napkins but not plates, or forks but not knives. I think our system is fine. The particular case, that ruined my morning today. The guy had 25 people and wanted just plates and napkins. That is an extra $3.75 to get it. Fifty foam/paper plates cost about $4 at the grocery store just to give you a scope of our profit margin on it. This guy decided to be a hardass and tell me how appalled he is that we would charge him for that when it should be included. Where the fuck does he get off? That's fine if he thinks that, but that isn't the case, it's not personal. I am already giving this guy 10$ off the order, so now I am just going to eat the cost of plates too? Why not "throw in" some deserts? is there some strange understanding that non-food items don't cost any money? Like we just have infinite plates and we don't care about them? So this guy has the fucking BALLS to threaten me with "I'm not in the mood to argue about it, but I am just going to have to take that into consideration next time I am ordering."
Yeah you take that $3.75 into fucking consideration. Fucking prick. We aren't even looking to make a profit on these plates, it's not like we are killing you with them. We just want to recoup our costs and maybe squeak out a TINY extra for our trouble. Officially ruined my morning.
Many times companies have a budget, say $150. They call and they ask us to work with them jamming as much food into the budget as possible usually this ends up with us giving them some kind of discount. We are fine with that for the most part. But when they set up the whole order, and hey are already getting 10-30$ off, the next day, they call and say "Oh yeah, throw in some plates and forks and stuff too will you?"
After explaining that those cost extra they get angry with me. They think they should be part of the deal "Other places throw them in." Well other places have a 10$ "catering fee" which we don't. You know you really can't win. If we charge a catering fee, then we got people bargaining with us to lower it if they only need napkins but not plates, or forks but not knives. I think our system is fine. The particular case, that ruined my morning today. The guy had 25 people and wanted just plates and napkins. That is an extra $3.75 to get it. Fifty foam/paper plates cost about $4 at the grocery store just to give you a scope of our profit margin on it. This guy decided to be a hardass and tell me how appalled he is that we would charge him for that when it should be included. Where the fuck does he get off? That's fine if he thinks that, but that isn't the case, it's not personal. I am already giving this guy 10$ off the order, so now I am just going to eat the cost of plates too? Why not "throw in" some deserts? is there some strange understanding that non-food items don't cost any money? Like we just have infinite plates and we don't care about them? So this guy has the fucking BALLS to threaten me with "I'm not in the mood to argue about it, but I am just going to have to take that into consideration next time I am ordering."
Yeah you take that $3.75 into fucking consideration. Fucking prick. We aren't even looking to make a profit on these plates, it's not like we are killing you with them. We just want to recoup our costs and maybe squeak out a TINY extra for our trouble. Officially ruined my morning.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Big Snow (December 8, 2009)
dozen accidents
Minnesota's first snowfall
always a surprise
snow falling sideways—
playing Donkey Kong Country
I hear winter themes
Minnesota's first snowfall
always a surprise
snow falling sideways—
playing Donkey Kong Country
I hear winter themes
Cold (September 30, 2009)
cold air on my face
inhale the smell of winter
exhale foggy breath
an empty highway
your aroma rides along
I miss my exit
inhale the smell of winter
exhale foggy breath
an empty highway
your aroma rides along
I miss my exit
Imported Japanese Porcelain Cup (August 21, 2009)
expensive tea cup
improves the flavor of tea
—money well spent
flirt with Emily
she ignores me completely
her way of flirting
drinking tea outside
I rarely experience
the chirping of birds
improves the flavor of tea
—money well spent
flirt with Emily
she ignores me completely
her way of flirting
drinking tea outside
I rarely experience
the chirping of birds
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Emo (July 19, 2009)
overindulgence
every pizza tastes the same
—that much parmesan
other peoples kids
I wish I could discipline—
with an iron fist!
every pizza tastes the same
—that much parmesan
other peoples kids
I wish I could discipline—
with an iron fist!
July (July 2, 2009)
Spam and pineapple
pizza of my fantasies
—a reality
underwater race
a beautiful nose—broken
but still beautiful
pizza of my fantasies
—a reality
underwater race
a beautiful nose—broken
but still beautiful
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Family (June 30, 2009)
indecisive mother
not hungry for anything
—but always sushi
Russian family
Italian restaurant
—sushi for dinner
not hungry for anything
—but always sushi
Russian family
Italian restaurant
—sushi for dinner
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Rain (June 25, 2009)
a beautiful store
filled with ugly customers
—I should be thankful
another bad mood—
I used to be so cheerful...
only a women
filled with ugly customers
—I should be thankful
another bad mood—
I used to be so cheerful...
only a women
Sunshine (June 10, 2009)
when we meet again—
eagerly I count the days
of this rainy week
gaggle of models
the most beautiful is mine
bathing in sunlight
eagerly I count the days
of this rainy week
gaggle of models
the most beautiful is mine
bathing in sunlight
Friday, June 05, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Another Friday (May 22, 2009)
that fated wedding—
I hoped I’d never forget
your beautiful face
approaching summer
the temperature of my tea
makes the day seem cool
clouds obscure the sun—
laughing at the sad attempt
the sun shines elsewhere
day filled with bird chirps
complaining about the heat
I know how you feel
birds tweet in nature
under air conditioning
I am tweeting too
every thought of you
soothes the bitterness away
a drop of honey
I hoped I’d never forget
your beautiful face
approaching summer
the temperature of my tea
makes the day seem cool
clouds obscure the sun—
laughing at the sad attempt
the sun shines elsewhere
day filled with bird chirps
complaining about the heat
I know how you feel
birds tweet in nature
under air conditioning
I am tweeting too
every thought of you
soothes the bitterness away
a drop of honey
Thursday, May 14, 2009
First Mosquito (May 13, 2009)
inside drinking tea
just recently I notice
the thunderstorm
my amazing bed—
already sleeping in it …
soon my dreams come true
a lone mosquito
doesn’t have time to regret
—the first of many
I fucking crushed him
before he knew what happened
the first of many
underneath make-up
hide more layers of beauty
to infinity
just recently I notice
the thunderstorm
my amazing bed—
already sleeping in it …
soon my dreams come true
a lone mosquito
doesn’t have time to regret
—the first of many
I fucking crushed him
before he knew what happened
the first of many
underneath make-up
hide more layers of beauty
to infinity
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Anticipation (May 12, 2009)
Out of Tabasco
Another bottle purchased
Mexican workers
Familiar tea
Pulses of dinner traffic—
Where are they eating
My mother’s stories
A trouble-making baby—
I apologize
An occupied mind
Re-arranging furniture
Soon to be my home
Another bottle purchased
Mexican workers
Familiar tea
Pulses of dinner traffic—
Where are they eating
My mother’s stories
A trouble-making baby—
I apologize
An occupied mind
Re-arranging furniture
Soon to be my home
Friday, May 08, 2009
Friday— (May 8, 2009)
a dribble of milk
changes the flavor of tea
the day is gloomy
incessant complaints
a fly buzzing in my ear
—working with mother
Friday dinner rush
Almost breaks me into sweat
Just out of practice
changes the flavor of tea
the day is gloomy
incessant complaints
a fly buzzing in my ear
—working with mother
Friday dinner rush
Almost breaks me into sweat
Just out of practice
Monday, May 04, 2009
After-Birthday (May 3, 2009)
parmesan shakers
conspicuously empty
lack of customers
freshly-washed bed sheets—
never underestimate
the soothing power
conspicuously empty
lack of customers
freshly-washed bed sheets—
never underestimate
the soothing power
Friday, May 01, 2009
Friday (May 1, 2009)
bad economy
forgotten by media
thankful to swine-flu
another birthday
a superfluous excuse
to see Emily
a bleaching mishap
after a dozen washes
—My hands smell like bleach
refills of water
drink without satisfaction
a salty sandwich
forgotten by media
thankful to swine-flu
another birthday
a superfluous excuse
to see Emily
a bleaching mishap
after a dozen washes
—My hands smell like bleach
refills of water
drink without satisfaction
a salty sandwich
I Am So Graceful
I just realized something today—
In my entire food service career, I have never had any kind of traumatic accident. I have never dropped a large tray of food. I've never dropped any kind of pasta or burger in the kitchen. I have never spilled anything on a customer.
I am just like a figure skater out there.
In my entire food service career, I have never had any kind of traumatic accident. I have never dropped a large tray of food. I've never dropped any kind of pasta or burger in the kitchen. I have never spilled anything on a customer.
I am just like a figure skater out there.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
English Class (Circa 2003)
The girl sitting next to me
She is very pretty I can see
But I wonder, can she hear?
With seven piercings in her ear?
“Fox”
Clumsy clumsy teacher is
Giving us a silly quiz
Every day he breaks the chalk
Obsessively I check the clock
“Balloon”
Behind me sits a regular bloke
Always ready to give a dry joke
He might as well stand up and cheer
“I love football, pizza and beer!”
“Reg”
The girl in front of me exposing her thong
I thank her for letting me stare for so long
She’s very stupid I always thought
But there is no doubt that she is hot
“Babe”
The boy behind me kicking my chair
I am about to pull out my hair
If he hits it one more time
I will commit a heinous crime
“Troll”
The disgusting kid who never talks
Always wearing the dirtiest socks
Worn out sandals on his feet
Hey kid, take a shower that would be sweet
“Grease beast”
Just another day in English class
I only learn to let time pass
Looking forward to when it’s done
It’s not so bad, time flies during fun
(Sigh)
She is very pretty I can see
But I wonder, can she hear?
With seven piercings in her ear?
“Fox”
Clumsy clumsy teacher is
Giving us a silly quiz
Every day he breaks the chalk
Obsessively I check the clock
“Balloon”
Behind me sits a regular bloke
Always ready to give a dry joke
He might as well stand up and cheer
“I love football, pizza and beer!”
“Reg”
The girl in front of me exposing her thong
I thank her for letting me stare for so long
She’s very stupid I always thought
But there is no doubt that she is hot
“Babe”
The boy behind me kicking my chair
I am about to pull out my hair
If he hits it one more time
I will commit a heinous crime
“Troll”
The disgusting kid who never talks
Always wearing the dirtiest socks
Worn out sandals on his feet
Hey kid, take a shower that would be sweet
“Grease beast”
Just another day in English class
I only learn to let time pass
Looking forward to when it’s done
It’s not so bad, time flies during fun
(Sigh)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Rain (April 29, 2009)
single lost women
asks a dozen bus drivers
—miss-matched directions
White Castle breakfast
worse than I remember
rainy spring morning
asks a dozen bus drivers
—miss-matched directions
White Castle breakfast
worse than I remember
rainy spring morning
Work Musings
Guy walks in, asks me what is on the buffet. I show him him the pesto rigotoni with italian sausage, penne with artichoke hearts and mushrooms, linguini with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes and spaghetti. Is there pizza on the buffet also he asks? Yes, we have pepperoni pizza, sausage pizza, and alfredo chicken with tomato.
"Looks like too many carbs. Thanks anyway."
"... alright (This is a fucking PIZZERIA DUMBSHIT.)"
"Looks like too many carbs. Thanks anyway."
"... alright (This is a fucking PIZZERIA DUMBSHIT.)"
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday Night Blues (April 24, 2009)
friday evening
few patrons participate
all of them ugly
two mature adults
leave a mess like toddlers—
disgusting piggies
non-paying patrons
pissing on my toilet seat
I’m gritting my teeth
greasy fingerprints
I only like children
when the slip and fall
lipstick like a clown
the mirror in her bathroom
—probably broken
ugly family
“buffet art” on their clothing
like father like son
few patrons participate
all of them ugly
two mature adults
leave a mess like toddlers—
disgusting piggies
non-paying patrons
pissing on my toilet seat
I’m gritting my teeth
greasy fingerprints
I only like children
when the slip and fall
lipstick like a clown
the mirror in her bathroom
—probably broken
ugly family
“buffet art” on their clothing
like father like son
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Slim Chance at Happiness (April 20, 2009)
all in on the flop
drawing to a royal flush
versus a full house
a rainy monday
expecting to hear crickets
—unpredictable
fifteen minutes pass
indecisive customers
—ham and cheese sandwich
drawing to a royal flush
versus a full house
a rainy monday
expecting to hear crickets
—unpredictable
fifteen minutes pass
indecisive customers
—ham and cheese sandwich
Friday, April 17, 2009
I Hate Friday (April 17, 2009)
friday evening
it’s never busy enough
but still exhausting
forgotten tea cup—
I remember after three
where I had left it
potential visit?
possibility of her—
brightens my weekend
so many sunsets
I’ve come to appreciate
empty dining room
full brown paper bags
not from the grocery store—
busy liquor store
second I relax—
dash to get the telephone
telemarketer
Emily’s absence
facebook loses it’s appeal
—just HTML
it’s never busy enough
but still exhausting
forgotten tea cup—
I remember after three
where I had left it
potential visit?
possibility of her—
brightens my weekend
so many sunsets
I’ve come to appreciate
empty dining room
full brown paper bags
not from the grocery store—
busy liquor store
second I relax—
dash to get the telephone
telemarketer
Emily’s absence
facebook loses it’s appeal
—just HTML
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
A Cranky Gentlemen (April 15, 2009)
every phone call
brings me closer to anger
hate all the voices
a true summer day
our patio is ready
in use by no one
excited to see
how badly she will hurt me—
this girl of my dreams
iced tea with honey
my summer-time fixation
I am still sweating
another pay day
one step closer to my house
Zeno’s Paradox
brings me closer to anger
hate all the voices
a true summer day
our patio is ready
in use by no one
excited to see
how badly she will hurt me—
this girl of my dreams
iced tea with honey
my summer-time fixation
I am still sweating
another pay day
one step closer to my house
Zeno’s Paradox
Monday, April 06, 2009
Boredom (April 6, 2009)
coffee versus tea
two hours spent deciding
getting sleepier
shot of espresso—
hypnotizing steam escapes
until its all gone
parking lot shadows
sunset manipulated—
stretch and disappear
two hours spent deciding
getting sleepier
shot of espresso—
hypnotizing steam escapes
until its all gone
parking lot shadows
sunset manipulated—
stretch and disappear
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday (March 31, 2009)
Tuesday
(March 31, 2009)
cookies with my tea
I consume the whole package
seven cups of tea
perfectly fine day
ruined by a thunderstorm—
a mother’s shouting
day of flared tempers
cumulonimbus relief
I welcome the rain
(March 31, 2009)
cookies with my tea
I consume the whole package
seven cups of tea
perfectly fine day
ruined by a thunderstorm—
a mother’s shouting
day of flared tempers
cumulonimbus relief
I welcome the rain
Thursday, March 26, 2009
44 Tea Cups (March 26, 2009)
horizontal snow
driven by bitter wind
—Industrial windows
three empty tea cups
scattered on my makeshift desk
full cup in my hand
driven by bitter wind
—Industrial windows
three empty tea cups
scattered on my makeshift desk
full cup in my hand
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Grey (March 20, 2009)
angry and sleepy
everything is overcast
tea isn’t helping
miniature cookies
Why did I take so many—
to only eat one?
empty restaurant
Ipod plays my radio
heard it all before
four teaspoons sugar
my mood shows no improvement
rain begins to fall
everything is overcast
tea isn’t helping
miniature cookies
Why did I take so many—
to only eat one?
empty restaurant
Ipod plays my radio
heard it all before
four teaspoons sugar
my mood shows no improvement
rain begins to fall
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Relief (March 8, 2009)
well-crafted sandwich
look forward to consumption
fully-stocked deli
a perk of the job
the industrial kitchen
never leave hungry
daylight savings time
all my clocks are incorrect
except my cell phone
look forward to consumption
fully-stocked deli
a perk of the job
the industrial kitchen
never leave hungry
daylight savings time
all my clocks are incorrect
except my cell phone
Restlessness (March 5, 2009)
single customer
four employees to serve him
—excellent service
non-existent lunch
a shit box economy
The ship is sinking
four employees to serve him
—excellent service
non-existent lunch
a shit box economy
The ship is sinking
Onions (February 28, 2009)
my father and me
sharing teary-eyed laughter
onion therapy
an annoying cold
ambitious remedy—
slicing the onions
carefully laid plans
I beg your understanding
virus saboteur
sharing teary-eyed laughter
onion therapy
an annoying cold
ambitious remedy—
slicing the onions
carefully laid plans
I beg your understanding
virus saboteur
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Blizzard (February 26, 2009)
darker and darker
finally the sky breaks
—another blizzard
glimmer of springtime—
smothered by malicious snow
a spiteful winter
finally the sky breaks
—another blizzard
glimmer of springtime—
smothered by malicious snow
a spiteful winter
Monday, February 16, 2009
Burger King (February 16, 2009)
Burger King coffee—
Notably low quality
Makes it delicious
Collection of crumbs
Agitating me all day
They won’t clean themselves
Notably low quality
Makes it delicious
Collection of crumbs
Agitating me all day
They won’t clean themselves
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Umbria Tuesday (February 10, 2009)
One tea, three sugars
Overcast wednesday breakfast
The first of many
Tea experiments
Black pepper basil infused
Exotic flavor
Overcast wednesday breakfast
The first of many
Tea experiments
Black pepper basil infused
Exotic flavor
Umbria Monday (February 9, 2009)
Raspberry lemon
Defeat boredom of monday
Tea experiments
Thirty days of work
A real-time strategy game
—No pause button
Defeat boredom of monday
Tea experiments
Thirty days of work
A real-time strategy game
—No pause button
Monday, February 09, 2009
Passage of Time (February 8, 2009)
My strong cup of tea
Becomes stronger every day
Awaiting springtime
Becomes stronger every day
Awaiting springtime
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Work Musings (January 26, 2009)
Pile of dry tea bags
One more added to the group
The passage of days
Empty sugar bowl
Too lazy for a refill
The passage of days
Empty sugar bowl
Too lazy for a refill
My tea sits without
One more added to the group
The passage of days
Empty sugar bowl
Too lazy for a refill
The passage of days
Empty sugar bowl
Too lazy for a refill
My tea sits without
Friday, January 09, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Work Musings (January 5, 2009)
Realized too late—
Stranded in a timeless world
Forgotten wrist watch
My nine-pound jacket
Donning winter armor
Preheating the car
Spamming coffee
My fifth cup in an hour
—I don’t like coffee
Stranded in a timeless world
Forgotten wrist watch
My nine-pound jacket
Donning winter armor
Preheating the car
Spamming coffee
My fifth cup in an hour
—I don’t like coffee
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Why I Love Winter
It's fall. That means it's cold and winter is coming. I am a huge fan of the winter for four reasons which I am happy to share with you right now. The cold air is clean, I get to wear my badass jacket, I get to keep food in my car, and the nights are longer.
You know how parents and grandparents are always saying nonsense like "Wear a coat or you will catch a cold?" Some kind of old barbaric belief that actually being cold is what causes you to catch a cold? Well the opposite of that is true. Germs can't flourish when it's 10 degrees outside, the same way they don't do so well in your fridge. When you walk outside in the wintertime and take a deep frosty breath you can rest assured than you are not inhaling any germs or allergens (well maybe SOME germs).
Speaking of coats. I happen to have a very badass jacket that weighs nine pounds. But it's not just wearing it that makes me like the cold. It's because when I have to put on a coat I have pockets! I love having pockets. I hate having to keep my car keys in my pants. Especially with these stupid fat plastic keys I have for my Passat. They are like keys for a toy car you buy at TOYS'R'US. They are HUGE! and you need two of them to make the car work. I have some other keychains and stuff on it too so it's a huge pain in the ass! I love just leaving that pile of shit in my coat pocket and not having it effect my life.
I mentioned food in my care. What am I talking about? Well you ever try to keep a Snicker's bar in your car during the summer? I bet you know what I am talking about, that candy bar is ruined. Well in the winter time, you can keep whatever you want in your car and it wont rot or melt. I am mostly just talking about candy like Three Musketeers bars, and Snickers. But it even works with beef jerky. If it gets REALLY cold than the stuff will actually freeze, and you get the pleasure of eating frozen M&M or jelly beans on those long care rides. Check it out.
Finally, the long nights. This one is very simple. I am a horrible sleeper. I often go to bed very very late. By late I mean 6AM. Because I am such a fragile sleeper, the sun coming into my room disturbs me further. When it's winter and the sun doesn't rise until 10AM then I have a much easier time sleeping. Which I like. I used to hate it when I was little because I could only play outside until like 5:30PM, but I don't play outside anymore so I don't care about the night. I just want the sunrise to be later.
According to Dante's Divine Comedy the eighth and final layer of hell isn't actually a place full of fire but of ice. It's a large frozen lake in which the sinners are trapped, frozen up to their necks. Interesting how this presents cold as the worst place to be. Part of the conspiracy to convince the world that summer is a preferable season. Non-sense I say.
You know how parents and grandparents are always saying nonsense like "Wear a coat or you will catch a cold?" Some kind of old barbaric belief that actually being cold is what causes you to catch a cold? Well the opposite of that is true. Germs can't flourish when it's 10 degrees outside, the same way they don't do so well in your fridge. When you walk outside in the wintertime and take a deep frosty breath you can rest assured than you are not inhaling any germs or allergens (well maybe SOME germs).
Speaking of coats. I happen to have a very badass jacket that weighs nine pounds. But it's not just wearing it that makes me like the cold. It's because when I have to put on a coat I have pockets! I love having pockets. I hate having to keep my car keys in my pants. Especially with these stupid fat plastic keys I have for my Passat. They are like keys for a toy car you buy at TOYS'R'US. They are HUGE! and you need two of them to make the car work. I have some other keychains and stuff on it too so it's a huge pain in the ass! I love just leaving that pile of shit in my coat pocket and not having it effect my life.
I mentioned food in my care. What am I talking about? Well you ever try to keep a Snicker's bar in your car during the summer? I bet you know what I am talking about, that candy bar is ruined. Well in the winter time, you can keep whatever you want in your car and it wont rot or melt. I am mostly just talking about candy like Three Musketeers bars, and Snickers. But it even works with beef jerky. If it gets REALLY cold than the stuff will actually freeze, and you get the pleasure of eating frozen M&M or jelly beans on those long care rides. Check it out.
Finally, the long nights. This one is very simple. I am a horrible sleeper. I often go to bed very very late. By late I mean 6AM. Because I am such a fragile sleeper, the sun coming into my room disturbs me further. When it's winter and the sun doesn't rise until 10AM then I have a much easier time sleeping. Which I like. I used to hate it when I was little because I could only play outside until like 5:30PM, but I don't play outside anymore so I don't care about the night. I just want the sunrise to be later.
According to Dante's Divine Comedy the eighth and final layer of hell isn't actually a place full of fire but of ice. It's a large frozen lake in which the sinners are trapped, frozen up to their necks. Interesting how this presents cold as the worst place to be. Part of the conspiracy to convince the world that summer is a preferable season. Non-sense I say.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Trying to Sleep (September 30, 2008)
always about her
my mind will not stop racing
"her" is one of three
my mind will not stop racing
"her" is one of three
Thursday, September 25, 2008
McDonalds 8:00AM (September 25, 2008)
in early morning
everything is unpleasant
except McDonalds
“deluxe breakfast”
all you need for happiness
less than five dollars
McDonalds coffee
not award-winning flavor
comforting flavor
everything is unpleasant
except McDonalds
“deluxe breakfast”
all you need for happiness
less than five dollars
McDonalds coffee
not award-winning flavor
comforting flavor
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Many World Kaizo Mario Lvl 1
Check out this video.
http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20
It is a run of the first level of the Kaizo Rom-Hack of Super Mario World. He overlays all of his attempts into the same video, so you can see all the deaths, but not waste any time! I wish he did the whole game like this.
http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20
It is a run of the first level of the Kaizo Rom-Hack of Super Mario World. He overlays all of his attempts into the same video, so you can see all the deaths, but not waste any time! I wish he did the whole game like this.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sweere Wedding Haiku (September 13, 2008)
love-locked in a gaze
joyous couple holding hands
no hole left untouched
joyous couple holding hands
no hole left untouched
Saturday, August 16, 2008
5:59am (August 16, 2008)
sun already up
awake I lie restlessly
classical music
writing on empty
no muses left in my life
—just a snoring dog
with the rising sun
light seeps into my house
every orifice
awake I lie restlessly
classical music
writing on empty
no muses left in my life
—just a snoring dog
with the rising sun
light seeps into my house
every orifice
Thursday, July 24, 2008
SNES Cravings (July 24, 2008)
Sometimes I get the craving to play certain SNES games. I remember how much fun I had beating the last boss. Even though I am fully equipped and capable of satiating these cravings and actually playing the game. I usually go download a speed-run of the game, and watch it. Today, I craved Turtles in time.
Only one turtle
Eight hundred dead foot soldiers
Splinter would be proud
Only one turtle
Eight hundred dead foot soldiers
Shredder grinds his teeth
Only one turtle
Eight hundred dead foot soldiers
Splinter would be proud
Only one turtle
Eight hundred dead foot soldiers
Shredder grinds his teeth
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Life - (Work + Sleep) = Zero (June 27, 2008)
Fourteen hours at work
Nothing to look forward too
nightly cup of tea
plenty of money
not a moment to spend it
only half a life
Nothing to look forward too
nightly cup of tea
plenty of money
not a moment to spend it
only half a life
Overseeing Construction (June 3, 2008)
strip Mall Patio
passing pedestrians stare
greeted with a smile
hideous people
patronize the mini-mall
—future customers
passing pedestrians stare
greeted with a smile
hideous people
patronize the mini-mall
—future customers
Umbria Construction Site (May 28, 2008)
A missing ladder
Insulation guy curses
It was fiberglass
work to meet deadline
plumbers and electricians
In each other's way
army of tradesmen
experts in respective fields
each tool-belt unique
Insulation guy curses
It was fiberglass
work to meet deadline
plumbers and electricians
In each other's way
army of tradesmen
experts in respective fields
each tool-belt unique
Sunburn (May 18, 2008)
birds chirp in the wind
grass and trees drink the sunlight
—my skin burns badly
grass and trees drink the sunlight
—my skin burns badly
Mayo Clinic (May 14, 2008)
waiting lobby
In many ways an airport
—with constant delays
six hours have passed
only one haiku written
my third waiting room
In many ways an airport
—with constant delays
six hours have passed
only one haiku written
my third waiting room
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Sunshine (April 20, 2008)
clear sky sun shining
summer finally begins
I waste it indoors
the poker table—
Attracted to the green felt
like a moth to fire
summer finally begins
I waste it indoors
the poker table—
Attracted to the green felt
like a moth to fire
Anger, Spite and Malice (March 05, 2008)
Frustrating snowfall
makes me more miserable
No one likes wet socks
Each day I'm rotting
mentelly and physically
"Marketing" "training"
makes me more miserable
No one likes wet socks
Each day I'm rotting
mentelly and physically
"Marketing" "training"
Winter Wasteland (February 18, 2008)
clear skies and sunny—
snow and salt covered ground
three below wind-chill
snow and salt covered ground
three below wind-chill
Not a Morning Person (February 17, 2008)
seven wake up call
I prepare for my workday
round peg square hole
buried in my work
saves me from unhappiness
little time to dwell
I prepare for my workday
round peg square hole
buried in my work
saves me from unhappiness
little time to dwell
"Training" (February 6, 2008)
Hour early traffic
I pull into parking lot
nightmare just begins
"training" without pay
I give thirty weekly hours
straight exploitation
as noon approaches
people become more friendly
maybe just hungry?
I pull into parking lot
nightmare just begins
"training" without pay
I give thirty weekly hours
straight exploitation
as noon approaches
people become more friendly
maybe just hungry?
Voyage Home Sweet Home (January 25, 2008)
even the airport
my headache wont go away
slot machine noises
Mallory-go mode
deftly she skates tab to tab
I admire her butt
my headache wont go away
slot machine noises
Mallory-go mode
deftly she skates tab to tab
I admire her butt
Gambling (January 22, 2008)
smokey poker room
I sit reluctantly
lose predictably
seek comfort in food
the Bellagio buffet
got my money's worth
I sit reluctantly
lose predictably
seek comfort in food
the Bellagio buffet
got my money's worth
Touchdown Vegas (January 20, 2008)
two hours backward
fifty degrees warmer
touchdown in Vegas
hundreds of people
crank slot machine handles
unhappy faces
fifty degrees warmer
touchdown in Vegas
hundreds of people
crank slot machine handles
unhappy faces
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