Caleb Talks E3 After You've Already Forgotten About It

So this is the post I meant to make about...a week ago? Two weeks? When was E3? Yeah, that'd be week before last. Of course, more has happened in the world of video games since then, so if I were to write my post-E3 thoughts as originally intended it'd be pretty dated. More so than this post will be regardless.

I only intended on watching Nintendo's broadcast Tuesday morning, but I found myself watching part of Microsoft's press conference, too. Honestly, there wasn't much there that interested me, even if you subtract that black cloud of XBox One DRM hanging over the whole thing. (Of course, that feature has since been removed, to the rejoicing of literally every gamer in the world. Literally.) Ryse: Son of Rome was touted as a graphically amazing bloodbath of a game that puts you in the sandals of a Roman soldier, but whose gameplay was demonstrated to be roughly equivalent to pausing and un-pausing a DVD. Killer Instinct was a nice surprise...until you found out that it isn't being developed by Rare.

Of what I saw, the most interesting thing at Microsoft's conference was Metal Gear Solid V, and that'll available on the PS4 and PS3, too. Of note, though: the MGSV trailer (which was awesome) highlighted several new gameplay features. We saw Big Boss sneaking, diving out of the way of enemies, and using new moves that he's never had before; we saw how time progresses in-game as it does in real life; and we were promised a huge, completely open world to explore. So, two takeaways: first, games are about playing, not waiting for the game to tell you which button to press so you can see a canned decapitation sequence; and secondly, that gameplay should be shown in your trailer. I don't care how good Quantum Break's graphics are; no one gets excited over a new game because of its cutscenes.

Sony had a conference, too, which I didn't watch, but it apparently they did the opposite of everything Microsoft did, which made for a pretty good conference.

Something I've realized: the more consoles become like PCs, and the more 3rd-party games go to the PC, the less reason there is to even own a game console. The only real reason is for the (usually first-party) exclusives. Sony has few first-party games worth caring about, and Microsoft has few in general, so, in my opinion, the ideal game setup going forward is a solid PC backed by a Wii U.

I was naturally looking forward to Nintendo's conference, so...what did I think of it? Well, it was kind of underwhelming, honestly. But let's cut them some slack. The main reason it didn't excite the way it could have was because most of the games that were revealed had already been announced back in February--we just didn't have any gameplay footage or release dates. And now that we do, I can say that the upcoming first-party lineup looks great. Mario Kart 8 may be the best Mario Kart in ages (if it turns out as good as it looks); Super Mario 3D World looks thoroughly fun, if not revolutionary; X looks like Xenoblade Chronicles on steroids; and everything Retro touches turns to gold, so Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will undoubtedly be one of the top games this holiday. So, Nintendo's conference: good--maybe great--but not amazing.

So that does it for this, the first blog entry in a long time. Will it be the last? Stay tuned...!

That Ain't How Ya Do It

It was...a week and six days ago that I won a copy of Sonic Heroes on eBay. (Note: despite what some haters may say, it's actually a pretty good game. Sonic Team certainly cleared up some of the problems that plagued the two Sonic Adventure games, and those games are almost universally adored by Sonic fans.) I immediately paid for my game and then started to wait for it to arrive. Thus begins my tale of woe.

The auction said the game would ship in 24 hours; tracking data didn't appear for five days. Granted, one of those days was a Sunday, but still. Even then, though, the data didn't update to tell me what had happened, so I finally emailed the seller to find out what the deal was. He/she said they'd look into it, and on Monday of this week, the tracking information changed to tell me it had been accepted at the sort facility. My game was on the move, ten days after I ordered it.

The game arrived this morning packed, of all things, in an Act II microwave popcorn box with the shipping label taped on front. Now, as an eBay seller, I'm all for figuring out ways of cutting down on shipping costs, especially since eBay actually takes a cut of the seller's shipping fees (absurd). But, really, a popcorn box makes for pretty shoddy protection, and this box was smashed and the game was rattling on the inside. The label wasn't even taped on thoroughly.

But I might not have even mentioned the packaging had it not been for what the mailman said to me at the door. It seems that the seller didn't even pay the correct postage for my game, and I was left having to pay the difference of 51 cents. This, despite the fact that I'd already paid for shipping when I bought the item. Look, shipping's kind of expensive, so maybe the fee I paid didn't quite cover it (despite the seller looking for every possible way to save on shipping), but as a seller, I know when to admit I've made a mistake. If the fee I've listed doesn't quite cover shipping, then I should have posted a higher fee. I just eat the extra cost, instead of making the buyer pay for shipping twice.

So, while I did end up getting an underrated game for a decent price (just over $10 all told, and the game's in pretty nice shape), the service was terrible. Oh, yeah, I also never heard back from the seller to find out why there was a delay in sending my item.

 

Of course, the seller has been negative feedback'd.

Caleb

We Have Heard the Call to Blogging!

A strange, yet familiar, desire has awakened within me. It is the desire to blog. The conceit that I can expound upon whatever trivial thing interests me and that someone out there will read it must be indulged.

This desire has grown considerably in light of my recent decision to all but quit Facebook, a decision that came about for two reasons:

1. I hate Facebook.
2. I really hate Facebook.

Yeah, I'll have more limited exposure here than on Facebook, but so what? I don't care if my friend Bob's great-grandmother Judy's niece's uncle's stepson's pet orangutan doesn't get to read my blog. I figure, if you're reading my blog, it's because you've made an effort and you want to read it, which is more than can be said about 99% of the stuff that comes up in your newsfeed on Facebook, isn't it?

So, here's where we get to the part where I talk about something that's on my mind. And...go.

LaTeX. LaTeX is alternatively of the devil and the greatest gift to academia, depending on the mood I'm in. Actually, now that I've begun learning it, I like it pretty well. My background in computer programming certainly helps. Now, why anyone would ever use BibTex, that's a question I may never be able to answer.

So you know, LaTeX is the typesetting language I'm using to write my dissertation. Speaking of which, my dissertation is coming along rather well. Graduating in December: boo-yeah.

That's all I feel like boring you with for now.

Caleb

Star Wars Episode VIII: A New I Sure Hope the Fans Don't Kill Me for All the Changes I Made on Blu-Ray

In only one week people everywhere will be granted the privilege to re-re-purchase the Star Wars saga, when all six episodes are released for the first time on Blu-Ray! Well, all people who have a Blu-Ray player and an HDTV, anyway, and that doesn't include me. But, hey, it's the big news in the nerd-o-spheres, so I've been keeping up with it.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Star Wars re-release without George Lucas making more tweaks and changes to the series, including CGI Yoda in Episode I and Darth Vader yelling "Noooooooo!" when he tosses the Emporer into the reactor shaft at the end of Return of the Jedi.

It goes without saying that fans across the internet are in an uproar. Why change something that so many people hold as a cherished memory, that doesn't really need changing in the first place? I've heard it said that Lucas is an artist, and that an artist is never satisfied with his own work. That is often true, but if that's the case then the artist should also realize that he'll never be satisfied, no matter how much he changes it, so he might as well leave it as it is (especially if so many people like it already).

I don't really mind the changes...most of them. I've no doubt that Vader's yell in Jedi, being as cheesy as it is, will mar the scene. The technical changes, though, like making Ewoks blink, or the enhancements to the special effects in the Special Edition versions from the 90s, don't bother me at all; after all, I'm sure Ewoks would have blinked if they'd had the ability to make them do so when they first filmed the movie. And some changes are essentially necessary to bring the first three movies into continuity with the prequels, like adding Hayden Christensen as a ghost in Jedi.

What bugs me are the changes that seem to be made just for the sake of changing something. For instance, in the Blu-Ray edition of A New Hope, Obi-Wan's yell when he mimics the Krayt Dragon has been changed. Why? There wasn't anything wrong with the old cry. And the new one isn't necessarily better. It's just different. There's no good reason to change it, and yet it was changed. And that bugs me.

Not to the point that I'm going to boycott the Blu-Ray released over it, mind you.

But I really wish that Lucas would limit his changes to technical updates to the special effects, retconning, and fixing goofs that went unnoticed. Those are the sorts of things that just about everyone can agree should be fixed.

Although if Lucas decided to digitally replace Hayden Christensen with someone who could act, well, that'd be a change I could get behind.

OK, so I've already mentioned several of the changes in the Blu-Ray edition of Star Wars, and you may have heard of some of the others already. But there's only so much you can fit in a news story, and most sources don't bother documenting each and every difference in the Blu-Ray release. Hence, I've gone out of my way to find pictures of scenes that have been changed for the Blu-Ray edition on Star Wars, along with the previous versions for comparison, all for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

 

Kudos to whomever made these pictures...I sure don't know who it was.

-Caleb

A Rainy Labor Day

Well, this is exactly what I told myself I wouldn't do when I decided to start blogging again. I've gone and left my blog dormant for almost a month. And now I find myself unsure of what to say, but dead sure I'm going to say it. Ready or not!

The official schedule for my graduation and long-awaited end of my college studies is that I should now be finished in about two years. I'd decided a while back that the year that I'd been telling people I had left was probably not enough time, but I'd still hoped I could be done in a year and a half. Well, I'll be staying a student a little while longer than I'd thought, but it's not all bad. There are actually several positives, including:

• I now won't feel as pressured as I would if I'd had to do all my research and finish my dissertation in only a year.
• Another year as a student means another year to buy Alabama season tickets. This is especially nice since I forgot all about them this year.
• Rebecca's got another couple of years to finish her degree regardless of when I finish, so it looks like the timing will work better this way.
• I won't have to cut my Star Wars role playing campaign short like I'd thought I might.

And I'm sure I could list more, but I won't.

Seattle's Best coffee is NOT the best Seattle has to offer, by the way. I should know.

Just finished Metroid: Other M today. Despite a LOT of negativity from the fans, as well as the game falling short of its expected sales by a few million copies, it's actually a very good game. Now, it's still near the very bottom on my list of Metroid games, but that only shows how good Metroid as a series has been.

An interesting bit about this game: from the very beginning, there have been people calling out the game as "sexist" due to the portrayal of the lead character, who is a woman. I'm very glad to say that this is not at all the case. The claims of sexism are actually due to some bad writing in the game, a clash between the game's portrayal of who the character is and the fans' preconceived ideas about her, and possibly (in some cases) some over-sensitivity on the critics' part.

Oh, and back to my dissertation: I now know what I'm writing about. But, there's little sense in explaining it, since it wouldn't make sense to most anyone reading my blog. We'll just say it's a Corona theorem problem, and leave it at that. But I'm pretty excited to finally know what I'll be researching.

I risk losing readers if I go any further, so I'll go ahead and end this post.

-Caleb

Industry in a Lazy Summer

If this is the life that I have to look forward to as a math professor, then I certainly could have chosen a worse profession. My one class of the summer ended over a month ago, and since then I've had little to do other than take care of daily affairs and study. Not even marriage has changed the ease of the summer to which I have become accustomed over the last twenty years.

I feel sometimes like I should find more constructive uses of my time, at least while I have so much time to spare. And I don't mean to say that I've been doing nothing but playing video games and relaxing (although there has been plenty of both). I did help mow the lawn of a member of our church recently, and I'm making a dessert for someone else today. And, of course, there have been the dishes, the bed-making, the cleaning of the apartment, and the taking care of bills and other duties.

And it's not like I haven't tried to find work, but unfortunately, no one seems to want a tutor this summer. Maybe I'm finally starting to see the effects of the weak economy myself. Too bad, too. We could have used the extra money.

So, I'm not feeling really guilty, or anything, but I don't want to spend all my time enjoying myself without doing anything constructive. Maybe I can look for a few more opportunities to do something now, while I have time. Because sure enough I'll be busy once the fall semester starts.

Only one more year until my PhD (I hope)!

Rereading The Lord of the Rings

You know what's really great is when you've said to yourself, over and over, for years, that "one of these days" you're going to do something, and then you finally do it. "One of these days I'm going to Alaska," or "I'm going to learn French," or "I'm going to start a popular website."

The Lord of the Rings is my favorite book ever. By far. No contest. I got a paperback copy for Christmas about twelve years ago and read it three times in fairly quick succession, and I haven't read it since. I even bought an $80 hardbound set with illustrations by Alan Lee (at a fair discount) back in 2002 with the intention of reading that set one time and keeping it on the shelf thereafter to avoid spoiling its pristine condition, but I never did. I've meant to reread it for years now, always reminiscing about my favorite literary world and intending to revisit it. And then I realized that "one of these days" would remain just that until I finally made the decision today.

So a few days ago I decided that, instead of playing more video games or starting another book or whatever else I might do, I was going to reread The Lord of the Rings. You know, I said before that it's a really great feeling when you finally do something you've intended to do for a long time, but another great feeling is when you revisit something that has become a nostalgic topic for you but that you haven't actually experienced in a long time and find it to be every bit as good as you remembered. Such is the case with The Lord of the Rings.

In fact, it may even be better than I'd remembered. Tolkien is long-winded and breaks a few of the cardinal rules of literature, but there's no doubt in my mind that he's a genuinely great author. The Lord of the Rings perhaps lacks the profundity that other great works of literature possess, but its themes are those which are most fundamental: nobility, perseverance in weakness, the lust for power. In addition, Tolkien set his story in what I believe is the most genuine fantasy world to have ever been created.

I've skimmed ahead through the book, and thought with excitement about the parts I haven't yet reached: the trek through Moria, the Battle of Helm's Deep, the sacking of Isengard. I can't wait to relive each one. Here's looking forward to several more days of excellent reading!