The Naughts that which scribble.

Scribblenaughts for the Nintendo DS reminds me of a very clever game akin to one you would find on Newgrounds. It even looks like it was made using a flash program. The only problem is...this is not a game I would pay full price for. I rented it from my local Blockbuster at the corner. Granted, I would never pay full price for a puzzle game to begin with.

The objective in each level is simply "Get the Star". However, there's obligatory shit in the way of getting said star, or there's an objective to fulfill to make the star appear. To solve each puzzle, you need to summon objects by writing out what you want to us. Type JETPACK like I tend to do a lot, and you get a jetpack to help you across the chasms. Type PISTOL, and you get a gun to shoot things with. You're starting to get the idea.

Just screwing around, I typed in GOD, and got a bearded man in a white robe. Fascinated, I typed SATAN, which summoned the devil. The two started fighting until one of them exploded in a cloud of smoke. I laughed.

Essentially, what we have, is a game about thinking outside the box and utilizing problem solving skills using tools we think will work in a given situation. Sure, it would make sense to cut down that tree with the star in it with an AXE and fall it at that...but I found it more interesting to summon a BEAVER and let him do the work.

It's amusing, but not without it's flaws...

For one, moving around is a pain in the padded rear. It's one of those games where you have to use the stylus to do everything. The face buttons and d-pad move the camera. And the very loose physics will bounce items around across the board if your run into them.

Again, I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this game, as I forsee this game going to the $9.99 fairly quickly anyway.

Monthly Recomendations for September

75% done with September and nothing really of note has occurred to me other than getting into the habit of turning on the morning news when I get up. Even if it's just for background noise. At the moment the wind is blowing rather aggressively out on the balcony.

The collection of "Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunally" has been completed over on Onemanga.com. Amazing that the Alternate Re-Telling of the series is completed than the actual Code Geass manga. I've only read the first chapter so I can't say I know too much about it besides it being a girl-power "The crippled girl gets to kick butt" sort of work.
Speaking of Manga, this month on Onemanga, I'm recommending "Lucu Lucu", the story of a young boy who winds up living with the Princess of Hell and her scarecrow companion in their bid of "Spreading good deeds to prevent Hell from overflowing". Heavily slap-stick oriented. Though, as an Episcopal Faithful (think of that as a subsidiary of the Catholic Church), I can't help but feel a little offput on how the Catholic icons are often represented in manga as short tempered, narrow-minded, and overall just unlikeable. Though on occasion you do see the occasional manga about a boy stuck living with a big-knockered Angel, but that kind of story is a dime-a-dozen.

On Anime Recomendations, following on the Fractured Transmissions tradition of being late to the party, Gaia Online has a unique theater section, as well as a good deal of Anime from Funimation. Recently I've been picking at the CLAMP series XxXHolic, the story of a cynical young man, Watanuki, who has the ability to see spirits who winds up working for the rather lazy yet MILFy Seer Yuuko and her two creepy loli-lesbianish assistants. The Seer also lives with a Mokuna- a character from CLAMPS previous series "Magic Knights Rayearth". They even joke about that.
"One Mokuna, two Mokuna. There's only two."

Video Game recomendations- If you have XBOXlive, I heavily suggest you invest the 80 Microsoft points into Indie Games Section's "I made a game with Zombies". It is essentially Geometry Wars, but way more fun when you're drunk.

Food recomendations: If you don't have a Geno's Pizza in your area...well, heh, sucks to be you.

The Team Fortress Hat Scandal

Newsflash! Developer Valve cracks down on cheaters! Cheaters cry HAX!


It's been a bit more than a year since I stopped playing Team Fortress 2. While an excellant multiplayer shooter to be sure, it was one of those games I do not excell at. Like Halo and Call of Duty, it's one of those games where I will have the highest death rate on the server. Some times I have my good days, most days I spend the entire match taking it in the digital ass.

However, thanks to a web comic I read called Nerf Now, which deals heavily with TF2, I manage to stay unintentionall up to date on the latest patches, features, and fixes.
From what I've learned, TF2 implemented hats into the game...Not sure if they do anything, but they're there. They appear at random making it a bitch to get them. So, some guys got together and created a program where all you do is idle around, and wait for the drops. You don't shoot anyone...you just Idle.
Valve did not take kindly to this. In a recent crackdown, all the Idlers lost everything they had unlocked while those who had not cheated for hats were granted a little halo hat.

Oh, the Nerd Rage (Post from Valve forum)...It burns like the summer sun on your skin, doesn't it? I haven't felt this much heat coming from the nerd community since 4th Edition got released.

It's a game, people. Play it and have fun with it. Don't bitch and whine as though the developers turned out to be the ones who molested you as a child.

Now, to be perfectly honest, I'm all for playing the game outside of the means it was meant to be played...but what these guys were doing is ludicrous. You play a shooter...to shoot people. Not camp out and wait for some magical hat or weapon to drop just to have it.

Then again, I have no sympathy for people who turn first person shooters into some sort of martial art lifestyle~ Primarily because they're better than me. And we all know there's no room for anything like that in the world.

Well done, Valve. Well done.