Hidden Peanuts

I’ve been waiting to post this until I actually wrote an entry there, but this year I’ll be posting movie reviews to The Camera Eye.

The blog is the brainchild of Evan, who I went to college with. He pretty much got me into writing movie reviews for the campus paper (and later I became entertainment editor), so how could I say no? I’m really looking forward to contributing, even if I don’t see as many movies as I’d like. We have seven contributors at the moment, so there should be a pretty steady stream of new posts.

Here’s my first review, King Kong.

In no particular order and by no means comprehensive:
(items with links are available for free online)

Books:
Eastern Standard Tribe, by Cory Doctorow
Everything Bad Is Good for You, by Steven Johnson
Mindscan, by Robert J. Sawyer

Albums:
Audioslave - Out of Exile
Ra - Duality
Harvey Danger - Little by Little

Movies:
Sin City
Batman Begins
Serenity
Kung Fu Hustle

Games:
Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)
Burnout: Revenge (Xbox)
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Gun (Xbox)
Urban Dead (online)
(And an honorable mention to Halo 2, which I still play on the Xbox just as much as when it was released in November ‘04)

While running some errands at WalMart today, I noticed that they have an Xbox 360 out to play! Amazingly nobody was playing as I passed by, so I stepped up.

To be clear, my impressions of the system are based on a mere twenty minutes of play time on one demo. In addition, these kiosks are the most uncomfortable things ever to play. The widescreen monitor is directly above your head, with the result that playing is like sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

I played through the demo of Call of Duty 2, a World War 2 first person shooter. In this level you’re a British trooper assaulting a German artillery position. There are other demos on the kiosk too, but by the time I finished this one there were people waiting so I stepped aside.

My first thought: “Ooh, pretty!”

And I continued thinking that throughout my playtime. Unfortunately, the gameplay didn’t rise to the same levels. Oh its capable, worth playing, but we’ve seen it all before. There’s been a glut of World War II shooters recently (Call of Duty, the Medal of Honor series, Brothers in Arms, etc.), and the market is pretty saturated. Other than the graphics and slightly rearranged buttons on the controller, which is an improvement, there’s just nothing to write home about in CoD2. Certainly not $400+ worth.

The Xbox 360 will sell well at first no matter what the games are like. I just hope the quality of available titles can step up as much as the graphics have. In the meantime, I’m feeling better about my decision to wait on getting one.

I used my free ten prints from Flickr today. It went OK, but not without a couple of hitches.

I selected ten photos to pick up at Target on my way home from work. I cropped them a bit through Flickr’s printing page, since digital photos don’t quite line up with the standard 4″x6″ ratio of prints. Sent the package off, and went on my merry way.

I hit Target about two hours later, and my envelope was waiting for me. First problem: Target wanted to charge me for the prints. This despite the fact that Flickr clearly states the first ten will be free. Thankfully, I had my confirmation printed out and with me, clearly showing $0.00 (plus tax). Be sure you do the same, at least until kinks are worked out.

The print quality is as good as I expected. I purposely selected a couple of my older, lower-res pictures as part of the ten. They’re no better or worse than they should be. Some higher quality examples, like my close-up of a grasshopper, are jaw-droppingly awesome (if I do say so myself). However, in one case the cropping of my print is completely different than I selected online. Not sure what happened there. It isn’t to the point where its unviewable, but it certainly looks unprofessional.

All in all, a positive experience. Not perfect, but pretty decent for the first 24 hours of operation. And the convenience of being able to do all this natively in Flickr’s interface is what ultimately will win me over.

I’m gonna have to start buying picture frames again, aren’t I?

I discovered Ning a while back, signed up for a beta developer’s account, and then promptly forgot about it. Today my account was activated, so I spent a bit of time attempting to create my own application.

Ning’s goal is to enable anybody to create “social applications” a la Flickr, Craigslist, etc. Essentially, web sites that focus on and serve a particular community.

Theoretically, anybody with a developer’s account can get an app up and running quickly here. The key is the ability to ‘clone’ existing apps. You make an exact copy of an app someone else has produced (code is not exactly secret in Ning), and then customize to your heart’s content. Put more simply, you are free to remix anybody else’s Ning-based site into something purely your own.

As Ning’s homepage proclaims, you can make a Craigslist for any city, a Flickr for any event, a Zagat for any interest… etc. I tried my hand at modifying an existing teacher review app (http://ratemyteachers.ning.com/) into a comic book rating system.

By following the readme file helpfully contained my newly cloned app, I was able to customize the interface on a basic level fairly quickly. Impressed, I went to add a sample comic review. I was promptly shown an error, informing me that I must not leave blank a field which I clearly did fill in.

I obviously either touched some code I shouldn’t have, or didn’t touch some that I should. I spent 15 minutes knocking my head against the files making up my app, but to no avail. This leads me to my main criticism of Ning: Just who is it for?

I don’t have the php development experience to work on complex applications like this. It would take me hours just to read all the code, figure out how the files are interrelated, analyze multiple generations of customization, and who knows what else. Even then I might not understand it enough to fix my problem. As a relative novice, Ning is above my head. But if I did have the experience I feel necessary to work in Ning’s environment, wouldn’t I be off building my app somewhere on my own already? Why would I make myself dependent on a third party?

Of course, like just about anything on the ‘net these days Ning is in beta. So I don’t want to be too harsh. I do think the concept has merit, and will watch to see what changes during development. A simple WYSIWIG editor would go a long way towards letting Joe Average build social apps in Ning.

In case you’re interested, here’s what I was able to accomplish in Ning before receiving the mysterious error: http://comicrater.ning.com/

My favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Halo 2 (Xbox)

If you’ve spent any time talking with me about video games in the last year, this one will come as no surprise. Before I launch into discussing the game, let me say that the #1 spot is really going to both of the Halo games. On a list with only ten spots, I didn’t want to take up an extra one. And since Halo 2 is basically just the first Halo with some extras, I’ll be sticking to talking about the sequel.

I’ll probably get a lot of grief for this from PC gamers. To them, Halo 2 is nothing special - PC games accomplished most of what it does long ago. To that I point out that I’ve never owned a PC capable of playing the current generation of games. So H2 is new to me.

But what makes this game worthy of the #1 spot? The social experience. At their core this is what any great multiplayer game is about. Not locking yourself indoors away from people, but gathering a group of friends together - in this case even across the world - and cutting loose.

The killer ap for Halo 2 is the Xbox Live experience. Playing online is nearly seamless. You form a group, then tell the system to match you up with another (theoretically) equally matched group. No messing with servers, lag times, etc. It Just Works.

Game developers Bungie made another wise decision when they made the game types highly customizable. Tweaking the default settings has produced some truly amazing results - My favorite is a zombie survival game, and there’s even a bizarre type of freeze tag we break out from time to time.

Notice that I’ve barely touched on the gameplay itself yet. The online experience is just that good! While the single player mode leaves a bit to be desired, multiplayer rises to a whole new level. H2 added the ability to pick up multiple weapons at a time, more vehicles to drive, and lots of little touches that put the sheen on.

H1 was a worthy multiplayer game in itself. While it had no online component, luckily I was in college when it debuted. There were enough players on campus that online play wasn’t missed. Halo 1 is the only game I’ve ever felt competent to compete at in a tournament (we took second place). While I miss having people in the same room, Xbox Live makes for a capable alternative.

As with any multiplayer game, the experience comes down to your teammates and opponents. The worst game can be made extraordinary or the best game turned to mud, just based on the personalities and interactions of players. I’ve been lucky to stumble upon a great group of Halo 2 players, and before that great friends to gather around a TV for Halo 1. If we didn’t end up playing this game, if we’d met playing anything else, you might be seeing that game at number one instead. So here’s to you guys, wherever you may be.

If you’re interested in duking it out against me online, I go by Thunderclap 8. Note the space in there that I eternally regret choosing. As always, anyone who can tell me where I got the name from on their own wins a no-prize.

In summary, here was the list:
#10: Worms Armageddon (PC)
#9: Tekken 3 (PS1)
#8: Secret of Mana (SNES)
#7: Turok - Rage Wars (N64)
#6: Super Mario Kart (SNES)
#5: Super Monkey Ball (GC)
#4: Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC)
#3: Goldeneye (N64)
#2: Tetris (GB)
#1: Halo 2 (Xbox)

My second favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Tetris (Game Boy)

I almost forgot to include Tetris in the list. That would have been a shame for such a revolutionary title. First of all, it pioneered multiplayer portable gaming. Second, it was simple to play - like some other games on this list, anybody can pick it up and play. Lastly, it came with every Game Boy shipped.

My brother and I were lucky enough to receive Game Boys for Christmas the first year they were out. Via the included link cable, we Tetrised our way through many a family car trip in the years following.

Is there anybody reading this who hasn’t played Tetris? Or at the very least, knows the concept? Line up blocks into rows. The rows disappear. Repeat. In multiplayer mode, clearing more rows hinders your opponent in their effort to do the same. First to let their screen fill up is eliminated. That’s all there is to it.

Literally everybody with a Game Boy had this game. The universal presence of it gave a huge boost. In the days before online gaming, being able to take a handheld system with you to other players was a capable substitute.

Currently, it is almost unheard of for a first-run system to come with a game, let alone an accessory like the link cable to connect players.

Unlike other multiplayer games (even some on this list) I could dig out my Game Boy, sit down, and enjoy Tetris just as much today as the first day I got it. In fact, I think I’m off to do that right now.

#1 tomorrow.

My third favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Goldeneye (N64)

Put simply, Goldeneye was amazing. Soon after the Nintendo 64 launch, this little James Bond first person shooter hit the scene. Based on the movie of the same name, you run around as Bond, shoot bad guys, save the women, and play with cool toys.

While the single player game was capable with a nice variety of objectives beyond “shoot your way through a level”, the multiplayer was and is spectacular. The N64 was the first major console to include four controller ports by default. Goldeneye was the first game to take advantage of it.

Four-player split screen matches are fast paced and highly customizable. Alone, the variety of characters to play as still puts more modern games to shame. This was one of the first truly social console games I played. Four players meant that a crowd could cycle through rounds and stay interested. Four players made more interesting games and more complex strategies possible. Four players meant more opponents to yell at after a loss, and brag to after a win.

That isn’t to say I was ever very good at the game. But oh, how fun! Friends and I would tweak the settings to no end. All mines? sure! No weapons, only karate chops? sure! Everyone playing as the annoyingly short and hard to hit Oddjob? Well ok, we drew the line there.

Four player console games have since become pretty standard, with both the Xbox and Gamecube having the capability. But Goldeneye pioneered the idea, and did it very well. Just don’t get tricked into buying the more recent, and far inferior, game of the same name. Stick with the N64.

I’m hitting the final stretch here. If you know me at all, you probably know what #1 will be. The real contest is for the #2 spot. Tune in tomorrow, you might be surprised.

My fourth favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC)

As I enter the top four, things get really hard to call. Every game from here on out could easily have taken first place, and separating them out came down to small details.

Smash Brothers is another great party game. Nintendo crammed all their franchise characters into this one: Mario, Luigi, Samus Aran, Kirby, Pikachu, and many more. Dump them into a level, and try to beat the cartoony goodness out of them. This is kid-friendly, blood and cruelty-free game.

One reason I love the game is variety. There’s tons of characters and levels to pick from in your battles, many unique moves for every one, and dozens of items to add some spice to the battles. There’s always something new in each round.

SSBM can also be picked up on a basic level by near anybody. Only slightly more complex than Monkey Ball, most moves can be accomplished by a combination of the directional stick and two buttons.

The only thing that keeps it from a higher spot on the list is the ease of fighting cheap. A number of characters have one move that is nigh-unbeatable. Repeating it over and over can guarantee victory even in the most unskilled of hands. Not that I’m innocent of these tactics on occasion, but thankfully a group of friends can agree to avoid the situation.

A sequel has been announced as a launch title for Nintendo’s next console, the Revolution. But this time, with online play! Nintendo would have to try pretty hard to screw that up.