Violence in Video Games

Video games are very near and dear to my heart. I've been playing them since I was very young. In fact, my very first video game was the original Mortal Kombat, and I remember being absolutely fascinated with the animations when I wasn't busy freezing all of my opponents with Sub-Zero. I've grown up with video games, and they've provided the backdrop to my entire life. Some of my fondest memories have taken place with a controller in my hand. They've told me incredible stories, shown me rich and vibrant new worlds, forced me to make impactful choices, and even introduced me to some of my best friends in real life. Since those first days in Mortal Kombat to the moments yesterday when I beat Far Cry 3 and gaped at the screen, to the many, many more years I will be playing them, video games have had their hand in shaping my life.

Eleven days before Christmas, 20 children and 6 adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary. The event shook the country in a way that it hasn't seen since the Columbine shootings. As the country recovers from the shock, we look for places to point the fingers. For whatever reason, we are not satisfied by blaming the person who walked into the school and actually pulled the trigger. In our minds, there has to be something more, something more to blame and some sort of action that needs to be taken to prevent this from happening in the future. The deaths need to mean something.

A Recommendation

So, a bit ago, one of my friends recommended this stand up comedian to me, knowing my love of most things stand up. So, I meander on over to this guy's site, watch a few videos that are posted there, have a few good laughs. Then, then, I discover this guy has a blog, and since I like reading even more than listening to stand up comedy, I give it a whirl. Several hours later, after many tears are had and my gut is sore from the pseudo-convulsions that come from laughing constantly for several hours, I was sad to learn that there were no blog posts remaining. /sadpanda

Fortunately, Mr. John Jacobs updates his blog rather frequently, and it's become one of my favorite websites to frequent (right up there with Reddit, YouTube, and The Oatmeal).

Anyway, point to the story, I've been offline for a while (well, not offline, just quasi-obsessing over SWTOR and new world events therein). I check tonight to see not one, not even two, but four (!!) new blog posts. Commence many minutes of reading. He wrote a very, very interesting blurb about WWE and why watching it is awesome (which it is... yes I'm older than 10). I left a comment, because I laughed rather a lot. I realized I was the only one who has done so.

Problem.

Not enough people experiencing hilarity.

Must fix.

Or at least try. So, here's that effort. I strongly, oh so strongly recommend that you go check out Mr. Jacobs' site, because you won't regret it. You'll even come back and thank me later. Fear not, I accept PayPal so you can thank me without even getting out of your chair. Very considerate of me, I know.

So, anyway, here's the link. Enjoy. You're welcome.

P.S. He updates WAY more regularly than I do - winning already.

Review - Mass Effect 3

The Good
+ It's Mass Effect
+ Best gameplay of the series
+ A startling and powerful conclusion to the series

The Bad
- Lots of controversy around the ending
- Lack of Jack Wall composing the score

Spoiler Danger
Very Little

A Welcome Home of Sorts

So yeah, hi! Long time no see and all of that.

Yet again, I'd like to try to get on board with the writing piece of my life, and this blog certainly needs to be a central part of that. New year's resolution this year... write more.

Sound like the same old song and dance as last year? Yeah, it sure is. But, this year will be different! I know it!

Despite the fact that I write for a living, I do so on a technical level, and, frankly, that part of my job is slowly being phased out. Now I'm excited when I sit down to write an email that will be longer than two paragraphs. Clearly, the writing aspect of my life is lacking, and that is especially true of the right brained portion.

So, this year will be different, this year will be one of actually making updates. I'm not going to set any goals for myself as far as posts per day or week or month - I just don't have that kind of time in my life right now. I do know that I want to update this regularly, and to have some interesting content for people to look at, even if that happens to be me venting about work in vague, obtuse phrasing or waxing philosophical about this, that, or the other thing. I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

First up, a review, and actual review of Mass Effect 3. One thing that I constantly regret about the game and my handling of it on this blog is the fact that the only thing on here is me complaining about the ending. Well, I have many more opinions about the game than just that complaining, and the game has come an incredible distance since then, so I'd like to give my overall opinion.

That and more coming up sometime soon. See you then!

Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

The Good
+ It's Spider-Man
+ <-- That guy, Andrew Garfield
+ Emma Stone
+ It's freaking Spider-Man!

The Bad
- No Willem Dafoe
- ...
- I fail at "bads" in movies this year

Spoiler Danger
None

The Avengers Review

The Good
+ Characters
+ Amazing writing and directing
+ No super hero felt overdone

The Bad
- Um... it ended...

Spoiler Danger
No spoilers

First Impressions After Beating Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 completes the 5 year, three game journey of Commander Shepard. It completes my favorite video game (franchise) ever. It is my favorite game of all time.

Or at least...

It was supposed to be.

Merry Christmas

Skyrim Soundtrack

Well, it finally arrived! I got my Skyrim soundtrack in the mail yesterday, and it's been on repeat in my car ever since. I'll provide a review of the soundtrack in an upcoming post when I review Skyrim as a whole, but I had a few observations about it I wanted to share.

Mass Effect 3 Score

Crazy story for you. I was happily sleeping. It was the first day of my vacation, and I was going to enjoy the luxury of being able to sleep in a few minutes before getting up to help my mother car shop (a trip that turned out to be more driving than actual shopping). Somewhere subconsciously, I heard my room mate get up and start getting ready to go to work, and I distinctly remember thinking ha ha. So, I wasn't necessarily sleeping, but somewhere between blissful sleep and waking up.

Then, I sat bolt upright, suddenly certain that Jack Wall wasn't doing the score for Mass Effect 3.

A Random Update

So, I'm sitting here at work, waiting for the printer to finish printing the giant posters I've been working on all day. Sadly, I didn't have much of a chance to work on any of the things I need to get done this week to go on vacation at the end of the week. Everybody's priorities are more important than mine. Eh, such is life.

I'm listening to Dream Theater's Ocatavarium right now. Not the whole album, just the song. The song, however, is long enough to be a whole album (by modern album-length standards). If you consider that the average song produced nowadays is about 4 minutes long, a song that is 23:58 is rather incredible. And that's not even their longest song!

You may be wondering why on earth I'm not listening to Chevelle's new album, and the answer is that the album sucks ass.

...
...
...

Just kidding!

Lulu

Well, I'd call this post a review, but it isn't. I can't bring myself to even listen to most of the songs all the way through. This is just bad.

So, I've long been a Metallica fan. My first album was Reload, then I went back to Load, then was S&M, before I finally dove back into the discography. I'll be frank, I think S&M is Metallica's crowning achievement. I like Load and ReLoad better than any of their older albums. Master of Puppets was my favorite album of the "hair" era. Then Garage, Inc. hit, which had a few neat songs on it (Turn the Page, Whiskey in the Jar), but most of the dual CD outing was trash. Then St. Anger, which, to this day, is the only album I've ever thrown away the same day I bought it. If Garage, Inc. was trash, then St. Anger was the burning pit of talentless hell. I'd equate that CD to listening to a toddler beat on his mommy's pots. Death Magnetic was better than the previous two, but it still couldn't hold a candle to their pre-Garage days.

So, I'm already so-so on this Lulu album, which is Metallica instruments backing the vocals of Lou Reed, whose non-Metallica music I am wholly unfamiliar with. Hit the music.... and if I'd purchased this album, I'd have snapped it over my leg before throwing it away. As it is, I'm considering burning the album to a disc before deleting it so I can break it anyway.

Let it Snow...

It's been snowing here all weekend. All weekend. And the air is chilly; just looking outside makes me want to bundle up and forget about the world. What can be done about it?

Anyway, it's been a very uneventful weekend, and I blame the weather mostly. It's hard to motivate myself to go outside when everything is so miserable looking. Plus the slippery roads don't help much either.

So... this weekend has mostly been Skyrim, lots and lots of Skyrim. Hard to believe that it's 7 already, and I'm still playing this game. Suffice it to say, it's a little addicting. Plus, it's much more fun to adventure outside in the fake snow than it is to do anything outside in the real snow.

In any case, I'm booking through the game as quickly as possible to try to get a review in for it. Plus I wasn't to have it beaten at least once by Christmas so I can devote ample time to the games I'm going to get that day.

There's my update, see you tomorrow.

A Couple More Preliminary Thoughts on Skyrim

I continue to dump an inordinate amount of time into Skyrim. That game is a little like a drug. Super addicting, crazy fun while it lasts, but you have a tendency to look back on it and wonder if you're sane for even doing it.

That, however, does not stop me from cracking out on my rogue, power leveling him through pickpocketing, lock picking, and sneaking around.

Bow and arrow? Check.
Double dagger awesomeness? Check.
Chest full of stolen goodies at my house? Check.
Badass thieves guild armor? Double check.

Morals? ...missing entirely. My rogue is a thief and a selfish bastard. I just started one quest line where, to initiate it, I had to lead a follower up to a certain god's shrine and kill him. Then I had to kill all the rest of the followers at the shrine. Now I have to kill the god's previous champion and the people with him. Lots of death and other ways to make myself obscenely rich.

Winning.

Did I mention that I am also a werewolf?

Tonight, I'd like to share a few thoughts on Skyrim, as posed by the fine, creative, and funny folks over at Penny Arcade.

My Christmas Wish List

It's that time of year again, that time of year when my parents ask for a Christmas list so they know what to shop for. I, of course, obliged, because there are few things better than getting free video games. Well, I do happen to enjoy giving gifts, so I bought my family some neat things on sale during Black Friday madness.

Of course, I bought them all from the comfort of my living room while wrapped in a blanket, drinking hot cocoa, and playing Skyrim. Sale or no, I do not stand outside in line to shop. Ever.

Anyway, on to the list!

A Post in Pictures

Today, I went back to work for the first time in over a week, and I was greeted with a desk that was quite... amusing.

I have this decided hatred of anything Christmas before I've gotten to eat my Thanksgiving turkey. The other folks who work on my team felt the business end of that hatred any time they wanted to rock the Christmas carols during the month of November. Why oh why do people need to have Christmas for two freaking months?

Anyway, I came back today to this fascinating desk. Follow along as I take you on a brief, pictorial tour.

Skyrim Soundtrack and Other Randomness

All right. Didn't miss today. Though I came very close. It's close to midnight, and it probably will be past that once I finish. But, I'm going to count that as a post for today, Monday.

First things first, today was my last day of vacation. Boo. It's been a great week and a half, but all good things must come to an end, as they say. In any case, in three weeks, I start another, even longer, vacation. Sometimes, not being able to take a vacation all year works out at the end of the year when I get to burn 3 weeks over the course of a couple of months.

Skyrim First Impressions

Hey, y'all! Wow, I've already missed another TWO days on my write-every-day initiative. I'm on a roll... or well, not on a roll, as it were. I gotta get on this thing.

Anyhoo, it's almost 4 in the morning, and I'm writing my blog. I'm in the middle of pulling an all-nighter with my best friend. He's (finally) playing Mass Effect 2, and I'm observing, because the story is THAT good. Plus that gives me lots of time to do things like blog. And sort Magic cards... lots of things that I could've spent the last week of my vacation doing, but things like Skyrim kept getting in the way.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So I don't miss a(nother) day of blogging, here's the obligatory Happy Thanksgiving announcement. I'll be up at my parents house tomorrow with no Interwebs access, so, I'm posting this bad boy early. Hope everybody enjoys eating turkey and other, assorted yummies.

So, we'll celebrate today with the best way I know to celebrate anything. Some good ol' Calvin and Hobbes. Enjoy.

See you on Black Friday!

Magic Worlds

So, with the weekend being over, albeit a few days over, the final Magic: the Gathering World Championships has ended. It's a bit sad that with all the organized play changes that Wizards of the Coast has implemented lately, the biggest tournament of the year is gone. I've been reading about this for a couple of weeks now. The organized play community, that is, the people who pay to play in tournaments, are generally in an uproar about everything that's come down.

I don't care either way very much. As a strictly casual player, it's been a couple of years since I paid to attend a tournament. I usually find myself sitting at a friend's kitchen table going a few rounds of Commander format. However, I did have the goal of one day forking out the money to travel to Worlds, if only for the experience. That goal is, sadly, no more.