The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

This month’s IoTM in Twilight Heroes is the Viking Games jersey.

It’s red.

Once again, I think this is an IoTM completely not aimed at me. Does it have an effect I’m not aware of? I don’t think so. I think it’s just a stat-tacular shirt. Anyone not spellcasting would love the buffs on this shirt, and hell, even those who are spellcasting still might pick it over, say, the Letter Shirt if they were wanting that +XP bonus while grinding. Stat-wise, this gives you the sort of strong percentage boosts you might want. It’s nice for that.

However, I’ll say it again and again: I’m not really interested in IoTMs as a pure “better than everything” vector. I want them to provide novelty along with the betterness. I donate for IoTMs to keep me playing. I want them to offer options that change up my game, or just be so cool, a la the Personalized Flair on the previously-mentioned Letter Shirt, that I can’t help but want to wear it. I can think of no situation where I would rather wear this than my Prismatic Sports Bra or my Letter Shirt. Sure, it might be better stat-wise in some situations, but it’s just not anywhere near as fun. Heck, even the special attack on the foxy caped suit, when worn with the hat, is much more fun. (Plus it has the term “foxy” in the title, so… yeah.) I just can’t see any time where I would actually use this.

So, you know, I won’t get it. Nothing wrong with it. If you want such advantages, go for it. I just can’t justify it, especially when I play the game, unfortunately, much less than I used to.
Oh well. Not like I can expect every IoTM to be aimed towards me, hm?

Timothy Burton is a man who was once well regarded. Now, he is less so. Supposedly. I suppose you can’t blame him for being out of favor with the cool kids: Hot Topic and such have run him and his works into the ground, coolness-wise. Making garbage such as Corpse Bride and that remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory really didn’t help things either. Still, you have to give him a little credit. This is the guy who made Big Fish.

I guess what I am saying is that it was really up in the air whether Alice in Wonderland was going to be complete shit, or just a decent popcorn flick.

I mean, I don’t think there was any chance it was going to be a good movie, perse. Alice in Wonderland didn’t need this sort of treatment, especially starring Kefka, the Mad Clown. Nobody with any sense was saying “Thank god, a remake of Alice in Wonderland. About fucking time.” Well, I guess, except the people at Hot Topic.

Still, I think Burton managed to make a fun enough ride. I enjoyed myself.

I guess I’ll get issues out of the way: the biggest problem is that they apparently couldn’t buy a foley artist which could make a decent snicker-snack sound effect. Fable knew that was the sound the Vorpal Sword makes. It’s right there in the poem. There isn’t even a vague attempt to make the sword in the movie sound this way. I was completely let down.
Additionally, the themes of the plot are really, really confused in the story. The story would seem to revolve around Alice not letting other people control her life back in London, and not giving in to the concept of fate, and yet, in the end, she gives in to her fate in Wonderland completely. She only pays lip service to diverging from the path. She never actually does. Even her diverging is “part of the plan,” and she doesn’t really think for herself throughout the story. Somehow, this magically translates to her deciding to think for herself and blaze her own path in the real world. It’s really not hard to set up that kind of parallel narrative. It really isn’t. I’m very confused why the movie had trouble with it. Would it really have been that hard to create a fate for Alice that she sees and then doesn’t follow?

Still, as I said, it was a pretty enjoyable ride if you just turn your brain off. Moreso than Avatar, I think. Avatar kept pounding how “significant” it was into your head, and thus stopped you from just being able to turn yourself off and enjoy the dumb ride. Alice is good enough not to do that. You can just have fun seeing the cool special effects and whatnot, and it works. I saw the film in 3D, and that worked pretty well, too. A bit subtle, and not either in your face with tricks or going “3D IS THE FUTURE OF ALL MEDIA” or whatnot.
I was also very pleased with the amount of Johnny Depp in the film. I feared he was going to play this like Willy Wonka, which was, honestly, pretty annoying. Plus, from everything I saw, I thought this was going to be THE MAD HATTER’S ALICE IN WONDERLAND STARRING THE MAD HATTER, but although he was certainly a main character, he got out of the way to let other characters play a part. I appreciated that. It was still, for the most part, Alice’s show. Which is as it should be.

This wasn’t the best movie. Not at all. But it was passable. It was enjoyable. I did not feel my time wasted. I suppose that’s enough, when you’re going to the theater just to go to the theater, hm? Maybe people do that all the time. I don’t tend to. But I did this time, and I didn’t leave disappointed. I guess I give this movie a slightly better than meh out of five stars. If you have any interest in it, feel free to go see it. You probably won’t hate it, and you’ll have a good hour or two of viewing.

And now, I launch a new ongoing feature, where I point at something and say “What is up with that?”

Okay, this probably isn’t a new ongoing feature. But I’ve recently been pondering a little stupid thing and I wanted to share.

Why is it that iTunes lists podcasts with the latest episode on top, and my iPod Touch lists them with the oldest episode on top?

I’ve always thought of Apple as being these masters of the user experience. As much as I’m going to stick with PCs, I have to admit that Macs are pretty slick and easy to use, and I certainly think that iPods are, easily, the best MP3 players on the market, now that my iPod Touch has made me a believer. They just know a thing or two about how to make sure what you need is always in front of you, but no more than that. They tend to force most programs that run on Macs to adhere to this unified look and structure. Even Word for Mac is completely different than what Microsoft is doing on PCs, because Apple demands it to be such.

How can something so stupid and simple slip by them?

I mean, really. That’s such an easy, simple change. It’s such a little part of the user experience, but it’s constantly in front of the user. One thing I LOVE about my iPod Touch is that I can start a podcast on iTunes, and then sync it and immediately be where I was in my iPod, and vice versa. With that being a feature, you’d think they’d unify that sort of thing. I really don’t understand why it’s different.

What’s up with that, Apple?

Things with my Camwhore are getting a bit awkward.

Recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Forumwarz in my office in between things. Gotta squeeze in the entertainment while I can, you know? I’ve been really gung-ho with Forumwarz, even after beating the game with my Emo Kid. So I got back to my Camwhore, lyricalvixen, which I had played a bit with before, and started working her through the game.

Now that I’m getting to the higher levels, though, it’s… making me really self-conscious. All of my Emo Kid’s attacks were hilarious, and were not particularly safe for work. But they were all text. Someone would actually have to hunker down next to me to see such things. Camwhores, though… well, they post pictures, of course. Currently, my most powerful attack is “Hand Bra,” which posts basically nude pictures of women, only their hands or arms are covering their breasts, and it’s cropped to not show any pussy. Now, this a completely appropriate attack for a Camwhore, of course. And it’s not like the images aren’t appealing. They are. It just makes me really jumpy when I’m running through, pwning a forum, and I hear someone coming. I feel like I have to hide the screen.

And it’s only going to get worse, I’d expect. From what I can tell, the Camwhore’s ultimate attack is “Post Vagoo.” Will it really show such things? I think it’s possible. I think about how embarrassed I’ll be when I’m playing the game then, and… yeah. Harsh.

I guess this is a benefit to some people, though. I remember Jick saying that was the whole reason he was playing a Camwhore on the Jick and Skully show. I suppose I’m lame, and I’m really into it for the “role play” of that class. It’s the idea of pretending to be a Camwhore that’s appealing, not seeing naughty pictures. I can find naughty pictures elsewhere! It’s the internet, for crying out loud!

Anyway, this isn’t going to stop me from playing the game. It’s still fantastic. I just might stop listening to things while I play, so I can notice when people sneak up behind me. The people at the office don’t, in general, get non-Facebook internet culture. Explaining the entire game of Forumwarz to them may prove difficult, if I need to get myself out of an awkward situation. Heh.

On our last episode of Being Social, I was talking about how weird, but cool, it was to be running around with people outside my normal friend group. And now, the thrilling continuation of that post.

On Sunday, things happened.

Basically, Cara invited me out to lunch. I’m like “Sure, I can grab some food,” so I went out. Then Cole joined us. Then we came back here, played Soul Calibur of all things (We had had a long discussion about Ivy during lunch) and made Dungeons and Dragons characters.

Then Essner called, and wanted to throw down in some Arkham Horror.

This “mixing of friend groups” is not something I have had a lot of experience with. Certainly, if nothing else, the sorts of conversations I have with Cara and Cole are, in a large part, different from what I have with Essner, Spaeth, and so on. They’re all awesome people, but I honestly had no idea if they would mix well. My only previous experience with this, really, was Natalie, and she just didn’t really click with my friends at all. She was a completely different type of person.

Still, I wasn’t going to let nervousness get in the way of fun, so soon, Essner, Ben, Essner’s uncle Terrence, and Justin Spants showed up at the scene, and we got down to some Arkham Horror. I set out the millions of decks of cards, and we prepared to stop Yig, though we figured that wouldn’t be too hard, since we found out from Wikipedia that Yig is “easily pleased.”

Yeah, we had a blast, though. Cole and Cara were joking right along with everyone. They took to the game pretty well. (Cole, especially, commented on how fun Arkham Horror was.) Sure, I stepped in to make sure some inside jokes were explained, but that was just more fun, as I got to retell the stories, and everyone laughed at them. It was a really damn good time, and they fit in pretty damn well. My nervousness was completely unfounded. The night ended with Cara and Cole commenting that I had some pretty awesome friends.

And you know what? I do. All around. And doing things with them? Completely awesome. I’m stupid to be worried.

Anyway, I’m going to have to get them involved in more geeky board game fun sometime. There’s a whole world of board games I have yet to show them! Yes. Yes… heh heh…

Gamefly sent me some Guitar Hero 5. I thought it would be fun to mess around with for a day or two and farm some achieveingment points, so I had it on my list. We just play a full night of it. It was fun! I mean, I never need to play it ever again, but it was fun. I would not fault anyone for being into it.

The major things about this version that I like is how intelligent it is. Much more so than previous games, which were being cranked out, some thought when into how to set this game up. Letting you have as many of whatever instrument you want, for example, is kind of silly. But when you get in there, and you don’t have to force someone to be on Drums because nobody I play with likes drums? Well, it’s clear that that mix and match ability is a benefit.

Similarly, I love, love, love the party play mode. I mean, we didn’t really use it? But I’ve fiddled with it before. It’s just kind of genius. This actually is the sort of thing I would put at a party. Granted, I would rather have it with my big Rock Band library, but it’s a great feature. Dropping in and out, flipping difficulties on the fly… it’s a really good idea.

It’s not all perfect, though. Most of it is presentation stuff that I dislike.
I kind of hate the way they display vocals. I’m obviously all about vocals, and I have a much harder time determining how far I am off pitch on the Guitar Hero screen. That’s a big problem, in my book. The vocals are also much, much pickier on even medium than they are in Rock Band. It’s kind of like Expert in Rock Band 1. You really have to be right fucking on that pitch, like a robot. It’s almost no fun.
The art style of the game, too, is just really grating. They’re trying to split the difference between realism and cartoon, and it’s just stupid at this point. Commit to realism or commit to cartoonish parody, already! It just looks kind of awful. It really doesn’t know what it wants to be.

The track list is actually pretty good as well. We found more than enough songs to fill the night that we didn’t completely hate. Granted, a lot of the best ones I already had in Rock Band, but I know that isn’t the case for some people, so it’s still pretty good. “Superstition” was nice. I hadn’t heard that one before. Not-me also got excited about The White Stripes on there and whatnot.

Yeah. It was pretty fun. It was a good night. But there’s nothing there that would make me give up Rock Band. Not to mention I’m so committed. I have so, so much Rock Band DLC. There’s no going back to Guitar Hero. Still, you could do worse if you wanted to rent a rhythm game for an afternoon of fun. Solid, certainly. That’s more than you can say about some recent Guitar Heroes. It’s just not a game-changer.

More and more, I’m being social, and it’s kind of weird.

I never think of myself as being Anti-social. I’m very social online, and I can hold my own with other people. It’s not really something that I’ve ever felt I had a problem with. However, I have, for the most part, stuck to my own circle of friends. I’ve known them forever, and they’re completely awesome. I don’t regret a thing. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Hanging out with them, though, has a very particular dynamic, and I’ve become used to it.

Now, suddenly, I’m hanging out with people from school. Fellow TAs and whatnot. It feels weird.

Again, I don’t feel like I’ve been sheltered, perse, but when I interact with these people, in this very different environment, I feel like I know so little about this stuff. I don’t do bad. I have fun, and I’m not awkward. At least, not any more than I am naturally, and not in a way that makes me uncomfortable. But it’s such a fucking unknown. Everything with my normal circle of friends is a complete known quantity. Hell, how everyone I hang out with online is also a known quantity, for the most part. There are no surprises, just good times. Not being able to completely predict how Cole or Cara or whoever are going to react is… interesting to me.

Frankly, it’s probably good for me.

I know I state this point over and over again on this blog, from time to time, but that’s only because it’s important. The idea that I will move away at some point is scary, but true. After I get my master’s I’m either going to go on for a PhD or get a job somewhere where my editing skills could be put to use. Neither seems likely to happen in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. At some point I’m going to have to move away. If I get lucky enough to move to somewhere where I already know people, using the power of the internet, so much the better. But more than likely I’ll just have to make new friends and such from scratch.

It’s good to break out of my bubble. It’s good to have fun with new people. It’s good for me. And unlike vegetables, it’s fun. I should push for it more. I shouldn’t hesitate and be safe. Hell, I’m in the process of making one of the least safe moves I will ever make in my life via transitioning. Going out with people who are not Matt Essner or Justin Spaeth is not that hard, right? Of course not.

Not that I’m going to abandon the awesome friends I have. Just… should be open. I should be social. That’s a good thing.
It’s a good thing.

I came home from the press yesterday and I passed out for several hours.

I guess you could call it a nap, but it certainly didn’t feel that way. It was a stumble upstairs haphazardly, hide in bed, and then where did 3 hours go kind of affair. I had debating skipping and just not showing up to work to sleep, but I was good, and went. Yeah. Good.

Anyway, basically, I’m tired. I’m running constantly all day doing things, so I stay up late to have free time. Then I wake up early so I can get things done so I can stay up late. I slowly whittle away more and more.

More and more and more.

And I’m pretty tired.

It’s spring break now, but I have plenty of shit to do during it anyway. I’ll still be waking up, working, and not having enough time to really unwind.

I’m awesome like that.

I think I’ll go to bed now.

Galcon was one of the first games I bought on my iPod Touch. It was simplistic, but a lot of fun. It required a lot of strategy, and a game took only a minute, at most. It worked perfectly on the touch screen. It was a great, great portable game. I picked it up in the big Steam Indie Midweek Madness, and I was interested to see how the desktop version would become more full-featured to make it work in a less portable setting.

It really doesn’t change a whole lot.

There’s nothing really lost in the control scheme. Mouse controls work just as good as touch controls. One might even say better, since you can control the percent of ships sent to attack with the keyboard, letting you react with that quicker than having to tap it on the iPod. It works fine, and, of course, sitting in front of the keyboard means you can have chat in multiplayer matches. Finally, someone can call me a n00b when I play Galcon online!

It’s really just the same game. There’s no campaign or anything. Single Player is simply picking a mode and a difficulty, just like on the iPod. This is enhanced a bit by Steam Achievements, however. There’s an achievement for winning a game at every difficulty in every mode, giving a bit of incentive to push yourself and pick harder and harder computer opponents, but this isn’t really a significant enhancement. Just a good idea, and something I’m glad they through in there, but it’s not game-changing.

Overall, though, I would never recommend this version over the portable ones. Being portable gives Galcon a huge advantage. It gives the game much more value. There’s nothing wrong with Galcon Fusion, and if you can’t get enough on the iPhone or don’t have one and want to give the game a try, you’ll have a bit of simple, strategic fun. But if you have the option, pick up Galcon or Galcon Labs on the iPhone. It’s much better as a portable game.

Altitude is really fantastic.
I mean, it’s simple. It’s not necessarily deep. But it has some really good things going for it.

For one, they get how an indie game should digitally distribute. I bought the game on Steam, but they have an online, web-based version of the game I can play anywhere. Alternatively, I can download the game onto any number of machines that I want from their website, even without using Steam. That’s the sort of access I want from a game like this. It puts use in my hands, to do with as I will. That’s a value add. Completely.

Additionally, the game really benefits from how simple and easy to get into it is. There’s no huge load. No 30 screens of developer logos to wait through. You can be in a match in 15 seconds, and just play. There’s no pressure if you quit, either, so you can stop just as fast. It is the perfect game for quick little sessions while you’re waiting for someone to do something, or waiting for a friend to show up. It works so well that way.

On top of it all, the game is actually pretty clever. You fly planes around on a 2-D map from a side view. There are five different types of planes with completely different weaponry. I like the Bomber, which fires grenades forward in its default configuration, but also has a backward-facing cannon as its secondary fire, to finish people off after you fly past them. I am also taking to the default weapons on the Biplane, which is a long distance cannon, and then a short range “machine gun,” which basically works like a melee attack, and shreds planes who get close, if you can get in range.
These are just the default weapons, though. You gain experience from playing, and level up, unlocking new planes and perks, much like Modern Warfare. Eventually you have 3 different weapon loadouts on each plane, each one a bit different from the last, so you can really strategize and pick your favorites. You also get to pick Blue and Green perks, which modify your weapon energy and your defenses respectively. As such, there is a decent amount of customization on each plane. Not a huge amount. Picking Heavy Armor over Rubberized Hull isn’t going to extremely change your strategy, but you can optimize for your playstyle.
It’s the subtleties of movement that really make the game shine, though. You’d think it would be a very simple affair to zip around the map, but these are planes, and they require finesse that you would expect from planes. If you bump into things, or fly straight up for too long, your plane will stall, and you’ll have to dive a bit to get the motor going again. You can also use this to your advantage: I enjoy stalling on purpose with the Biplane, so people get close, and then letting loose with my machine gun. If I didn’t suck at getting out of Stalls half the time, it would be really effective. Heh.

But yeah, Altitude is a simple game, but it really is a lot of fun. It plays great with a gamepad, if you have one, but works just fine with the keyboard, too. I put it on my lappy and on my main box, and I’ve been playing it off and on since I got it in the recent Steam Indie Pack. It would be a much easier recommendation at the $2 price point it was then. It’s a ton of value for what I paid for it. But even at $10, I think I would have been happy with my purchase. Check it out, and see if it’s something you can get into. It’s simple fun, and completely enjoyable.