Was I going somewhere with this?

I've never been overly fascinated with Zombies, unlike certain people I know that actually have a contingency plan if and when the Zombie Apocalypse should occur. I find the whole concept silly and illogical, and silly and illogical is my bread and butter, I just never got on the whole World War Z thing.
To me, Zombies have always been one of the lowest threats possible should things go bad. Zombies are usually one of the first enemies you encounter in an RPG, and are easily dispatched due to low intelligence and predictable nature.

In other news, had to do a little cleanup of my Twitter account since either Twitter was using it itself for advertising purposes or someone got ahold of my password, so had to go in there and do som'bout'it.

Just realized I've been going on and on about essentially nothing at all.
...
Par for the course.

Shepard, Thorton is not.

I've made it a habit to keep a bottle of water by my bedside these days, to stave off the effects of early morning pickle mouth. If I wake up in the middle of the night and my mouth is all dry and tastes like the very bottom of a whiskey barrel, you can't just nod off from that. My mouth demands to remain moist.

So not long ago, I gave Alpha Protocol a tour of duty at a discount price, despite the foamy mouthed negative reviews. It was one of those games where I "had to see it for myself". I wanted to see the trainwreck.
The end result was...not unenjoyable. I definately felt I was playing a poor mans Mass Effect with only one squad member, and the main character not being quite as Badass. In fact, the main character, Michael Thorton, is kind of a dick.
The game also suffers from being relatively short, and as soon as you meet some relatively interesting characters, you're already waving them goodbye as you move on to the next chapter. It almost begs to be played at least twice to test out different approaches to situations. I can name at least three places where I would have preferred a different course, or wasn't paying attention and did something I didn't want to.
It's at the very least a 3 out of 5 game. In the very least.

The next game in my queu is Eternal Sonata, a game I've been meaning to get under my belt for some time now. The voice acting and story are on par with what you would expect from a Japanese RPG. That is, very campy, possibly cheesy, and the story makes no sense from a standard, logical point of view.

I started drawing again!

So I've started drawing again recently. That's probably interesting to only a few of you out there. The decision to return to the pencil and paper was more or less made for me since we came to realize that Fractured Transmissions didn't have a vehicle to drive it forward.
So we formulated Operation: What?, a webcomic dealy project thing. Hopefully it'll pan out, and be funny enough that people will read it.

In Memorial: Hangfire Jim lister

A writer and an artist draw their inspirations from many places. Be it some event they saw on their drive in to work, or something said or done by them or to them. It is the fuel of creativity. Sometimes, it is not positive events that give energy to the creative mind, but even this wood must the carver work with, or he'll always be stuck with that piece of wood until he does something with it.

This last Thursday, I lost my father. Him being 54, in the prime of life, working during his retirement days as an officer at ASU. He drank like a fish, but never seemed to have a hangover the next day. He was a hard worker, but cut loose with the best of them. He was worldly, he was tough. He was both a sinner and saint. He taught me the first dirty joke that got me in trouble in school. He was a lover of the Old West, and modeled himself as such. I will always believe that he was born in the wrong century for his genius and wisdom to have been truly appreciated.

It was way too soon for him to go, but who am I to question the decisions of the Divine?

He will be missed, but I have chosen to remain philisophical and calm, as he would like me to be. He walks a different road from me now, but one day our two roads will cross, and we'll continue on together to whatever lays beyond that next hill. But until that days comes, I have his lessons to live by, and his jokes to tell.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20101221_lister

--And when he gets to heaven, to St. Peter he will tell, "Another soldier reporting for duty, sir. I've done my time in Hell."

Verizon sells Lightening Bolts?

So, we may have all seen this commercial before. A guy racing out to his mail box, really desperate for what's inside. We have some dramatic, heavy music playing like he's trying to make it to the battlefield in time. This is a man with a purpose, and that purpose is whatever is in that parcel he's clutching to his bosom.
He runs into a barn and hides himself away as he unwraps a a polished Mahogany box. Dude is breathing heavily, he opens it with baited breath. Light eminates from the box as...something starts to take shape, but we only see it from the mans back.
Next thing we see, our epic hero is striding out of the barn with a...Holy crap, is that a lightning bolt?!
The commercial ends with the guy stepping out of the barn and heaving the bolt into the heavens to...
...
...
What the hell was he throwing that thing at? Was there a Cyclops or a Hydra threatening the farmstead? Was he trying to jumpstart a transformer on a power line the Chuck Norris way?
He obviously had to purchase this thing, pay the billing, and then wait for the delivery-- I would imagine he signed for overnight-- and the first thing he does to throw it at someone or something. For all that, I would hope that it's not just a one-use item.

I'm stuck this morning trying to decipher what Verizon is trying to say with this in conjuction with their phones. The commercial (which I tried to find on Youtube, but failed, sorry on that) talks about how their network is fast. Fast like lightning? Does my Verizon phone come equipped with an emergency Zeus Mode in case I have to do battle with Titans? I really need a phone that's reliable when besieged by mythical beings.

Gamers need to shut the hell up!

Does there exist a forum community somewhere out there on the internet where Gamers can commune and discuss their hobbies in a civil manner without the forbidden laws of the interwebs taking over and reducing everyone logged in into ranting nutjobs?

I will admit that I am not a part of a lot of online communities, possibly for good reason as my tolerance for people on message boards wears exceptionally paper thin incredibly fast, especially on gaming forums and communities. Double so when an anticipated game is still in the development stages. Oh, heavens, what is it that makes your average Gamer suddenly think he has a pipeline of influence into the makings of games? Called me old fashioned and uncreative, but I firmly believe that it's the Developers job to make the game, and it's my duty to pay them money to play it.
You don't badger an artist over what to put in his painting while he's working, do you? But apparently because we pay these people for our entertainment, normally $50-$60 fresh, we Gamers tend to have this complex in which we feel the Developers "owe us" in some odd way. I can safely tell you, true believers, that Developers owe us nothing.
While Developers may seek out player input from time to time, this does not mean the Developers are going to use us as their focus group and think tank. Developers have their own ideas. They have their own plans. They have their own vision. We gamers need to learn to shut up for a bit and let them express themselves.
I don't care how much money you pay for their work, it's their work. Let the Developers have their fun, and we have ours when they're done. How does that sound?

Splatterhouse...Starring Winnie the Pooh

Jim Cummings is the voice of the the Terror Mask in the new Splatterhouse game.

The voice of Disney's Big Pete, the current voice of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, the Tasmanian Devil, Darkwing Duck, and a variety of other kiddie works, is the same voice as a foul mouthed Mask of bloodlust and evil.

Every time I play this game after hearing that voice, I'm now imagining Big Pete or Tigger demanding I dismember and destroy all in my path.
It is both awesome and unsettling at the same time. But way more awesome than unsettling.
It's a good game too, but isn't without it's F--- You moments. I haven't sworn this much about Bull-S--- cheaps deaths since the Hades level in the first God of War.