I’m not capable of love

Well, it’s happened. I bought me some car yesterday. A fine-ass deal, too. It’s a very nice little car; a ’92 Dodge Spirit that looks great and runs like a charm, and it only cost me about $1200. I’m still trying to come up with a suitable nickname for the thing though. I’ve got a few in mind, but they’re all so…obvious. I’m sure a good one’ll come to me sooner or later. Until then, picture!

Nice, yes? Well, at least for the price I paid for it, it’s a fantastic car. But you know what’s not so nice? The new Ataris. Jesus Murphy, they’re not the Ataris anymore. I was just looking up some lyrics yesterday when I landed at their website and the song in the background was so not-Ataris that I assumed that maybe there was another band called the Ataris and the band I was looking for was elsewhere. Sadly, I was wrong.

I guess that it all happened because they dropped their old label and created their own, allowing them a little more freedom to do what they want. And that freedom ended up sounding like some horrid cross between HIM and My Chemical Romance. Though I guess “horrid” is very much the wrong word to use in this situation. For one, I like both HIM and MCR, and more importantly, the Ataris’ new sound isn’t all that bad. Also, I do like their new CD, Welcome The Night, even though it in no way sounds like the Ataris. Even Kris Roe doesn’t sound like Kris Roe anymore. In summation, it’s not a change for the worse, but I’m surely going to miss the old Ataris.

Those voices are calling from far away

So I did end up getting up and renting Sonic and the Secret Rings back on Sunday afternoon. Looks like it wasn’t all I was hoping for. Not a buyer anyway, which is good, because I’m really scrounging up my pennies at the moment. The Ryanmobile is on its way, and I’m also saving for some other choice objects. More on that in future post though. Now, a short review!

Sonic and the Secret Rings, as you may have gotten wind by now, is a pretty good game. Now, a lot of people might say it’s an “on-rails” game, but that’s not really the case. It’s really similar to the Sonic Adventure games, with long, esssentially straightforward levels. The only real difference is that you don’t have to push anything to make Sonic go. You control every other move he makes though, so I’m not really going to lump this into the on-rails category. Works out real good too, and despite what some people are saying, I found the remote to be more than adequate for controlling the game. The thrusting stuff is spot-on, the movement is smooth, and you’ve got more than enough buttons/gestures to get everything done efficiently. The only little hiccup I’ve found is that sometimes I have trouble controlling Sonic’s lateral movement while moving backwards. Other than that though, s’all good.

The game itself is great, focusing solely on moving fast and doing cool stuff like thrashing enemies and… jumping I guess. I dunno. But anyway, there are seven or eight worlds, each with a huge amount of mission stages to complete, some requiring you just to get to the end, others with a ring or kill count to fill. The only problem here is that you’re ranked with medals, and gold medals require nothing less than a perfect performance, and that’s really one of the big points that keeps me from buying the game (if you didn’t know, I’m a very obsessive completionist). I’m just not good enough. I’ve barely got any silvers to my name, and there are a ton left without any medal at all. Of course, to help the cause, Sonic gains experience points after every level, and when he levels up, he gains new abilities or enhancements like higher top speeds or item magnets. The level-up bonuses help a little but obviously the ones that help the most take forever to show up.

There’s also a rather robust multiplayer mode included in the game. Of course, by “robust” I don’t mean “good”, but rather “extensive”. Actually, it’s not too bad. Works out a lot like a Mario Party, with a bunch of 4-player games strung together by a boatload of mini-games. There are four or so different game modes to choose from, and most of them work out pretty well, though one in particular that requires you to pick out treasure chests can be really one-sided if one player is really lucky. The mini-games are all obviously made to work with the Wii remote, and to be frank, a bunch them don’t work nearly as seamlessly as the main game does. Sometimes the contols can be really shoddy, mostly because of crappy pointer sensitivity, but it’s not game-breaking. I played multiplayer with my youngest brother for a couple hours, and it’s pretty fun if you can figure out how to get around the half-assed control schemes.

Overall, Sonic and the Secret Rings is definitely a good game. Sure beats the crap our favourite blue hedgehog’s face has been plastered on lately (Sonic Riders? BLECH). It’s got a smooth single player game with exactly the kind of action you’d expect from a good Sonic game. The only issue I have is that the medal system asks for way too much from the player. I can’t even get silver medals on most of the training missions, and I really don’t suck at the game, so that’s saying something. I wouldn’t buy it, but it’s more than worth a rent or two. Hell, once it hits the half-price mark in a year or two (here’s hoping), I could see myself picking it up. But until that time, it’s just a renter. But don’t rent it if you intend to entertain guests with multiplayer, just grab Mario Party 8 instead (which comes out in like a week).

‘Till the day I die

Ugh. I wish I was dead. I don’t know about anyone else, but I really really hate being sick. All snotty and zombielike. It’s horrible I tell you! I just want to stay home from work tomorrow, but I’ve yet to miss a day of work in my life and I don’t feel like changing that anytime soon, so I guess I’ll have to go. Then when I get home I’ll explode in a glorious shower of mucus. Huzzah.

One good thing though, is that TRU got Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja in stock today, which I promptly scooped up. It’s a fairly neat game, but man is it hard. It’s a weird little dungeon crawler with a simple turn-based battle system and randomly generated dungons. Most people would probably write it off as tedious or something else like that, but it’s quite up my alley, really. I like most games that center around spelunking for treasure in one way or another, so is all good.

I was also eyeing up Sonic and the Secret Rings. I’ve been reading a lot about it, and I think it sounds pretty great, but I’m still on the fence about it. I think maybe it’s really just a renter though. But even that’s a pain in itself, because I haven’t been able to work up the energy to go out and rent a game in probably close to a year by now (someday, Excite Truck, someday).

Besides being sick, there’s another something that’s really bugged me recently. I was unloading a truck on Wednesday, and I noticed a strangely labeled box. As it turns out, there’s some sort of horrible Bratz/Shrek cross-promotion going on. Though proper use of the term “cross-promotion” is still debatable, as I’ve yet to see any Shrek crap that claims he’s “the only troll with a passion 4 fashion”. Why does this bug me? Frankly, I’ve grown to hate Bratz with all my earthly being, and Shrek continues to be the biggest animated sell-out ever. Seriously. Even Dora’s face hasn’t been plastered on as much junk as Shrek’s, and that is really saying something.

Now the bonds are broken

I learned something very important tonight: never watch a movie just because you like the title. Even if it does sound really, really good, you should probably check out the IMDb page first, just in case.

The movie in question that spurs this lesson is called “Cannibal Holocaust“. Yeah. I know, it sounds totally wicked. The only thing that could make it better is if it were “Zombie Holocaust”, “Vampire Holocaust” or “Robot Holocaust”. The funny thing is that all those movies actually exist. But anyway, I was not overly pleased with “Cannibal Holocaust”, as it wasn’t at all what I was hoping for. I mean, I guess I was expecting savages messing up some people’s shit, but all I got was extremely raunchy and gory social commentary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against social commentary, I’d just rather have a lot of cheese instead. What can I say? I love cheese. Bad dialogue and piss-poor actors make a movie all that much more enjoyable. But no, “Cannibal Holocaust” actually had a startlingly adept crew, and the gore wasn’t even enjoyable gore. It was just mean-spirited is all.

I’m not sure what my point is. I guess it’s that you probably shouldn’t watch “Cannibal Holocaust”, especially if you have those pesky “moral” things. Yeah. Lot of unapologetically horrid stuff here. Not so good. When I am offended (only slightly, only slighty) by something, you know it’s gotta be pretty bad. The real strange thing though, is that it really hooked me. Usually I break out some kind of handheld video game or the nail clippers halfway through a movie, but I watched this one very intently. Funny how that worked out. But yeah, probably best to stay away from this one.

If you knew, what would you do?

Uh oh. An album cover. Run for the hills, kids; it’s Band of the Month time!

This month we’re looking at The Living End, an Australian punk act. I may have first heard of them from Guitar Hero 2, and as “Carry Me Home” quickly became one of my favourite songs in the game, I knew that I’d have to search out more. As usual, I went around rounding up their various CDs, and all I have to say is “Huh?”

Okay, let’s start from the start. The sound quality in that video isn’t great, but you should still be able to make out that the song kicks a little ass. It’s all about rocking and rolling. I’ve listened to three of their five releases, and that isn’t really a recurring theme. No, The Living End, as it turns out, play out a lot more like what Green Day used to sound like (pre-Warning, AKA good), rather than ACDC or something that might just be trying to melt your face off. In any case, it’s good stuff. There’s a lot of quality punk sound here, with a little pop and some nice surf vibes scattered about. Big stamp of approval for that one. Oh! And there are even some psychobilly/rockabilly tones, which I especially like.

To keep it short, if you liked Green Day back when they were still respectable musicians, then you’ll like The Living End. If you like punk music in general, I’d say give them a shot. They might be a little more poppy than most die-hard punkers would care for, but they carry themselves well, and there’s a good variety of flavour in the music. Good stuff.

Also, it would seem that Canada rules.

Sharpen up your sticks

So I was woken up ever so rudely this morning (around 2AM) by a bright blue light emanating from my Wii. I was about to go smack my brother for sending me a message at such an hour, but upon checking it, it turned out to be from Nintendo. Turns out they were working on a top-secret Channel for the Wii, called the “Everybody Votes Channel.” Stupid sounding, yes, but basically it’s a channel made specifically for polls, so I’m all over that. Polls are my second favourite thing to fill out, second only to surveys. Add Miis into the mix, and you’ve got a winner in my eyes.

Okay, so it’s kind of dumb, really. But hey, it’s neat that they managed to sneak in a new channel without any fanfare at all. Hope that happens every once in a while. It’s nice to know what you’re getting ahead of time, but a surprise here and there is also nice. It’s probably also a welcome change to hear me happy about something rather than whining like a little girl.

Wish you were here

Bear with me for a couple paragraphs here, I really need to vent a bit. What about? Everything basically. I don’t know how it’s been for you, but 2007 is shaping up to be one really shitty year for me. The first week or so was looking pretty positive, but after that, things just started going wrong and it’s only gotten worse. Imagine a world where I, a man who can barely stand doing household chores, finds the only place where he’s even close to happy is at work. And lately, I’m not even there all that often anymore. I wouldn’t complain, but financial responsibility just crept up and hit me like a Thwomp, so it’s looking like I’m going to need a second job. Fantastic. I’ve tried a myriad of different sentences here, but I’m just not sure where to go from that… so let’s jump ahead a little and skip on a few choice details.

I guess having two jobs and working everyday, possibly even twice a day sometimes, would augment my income significantly, and that would be great. I’ve been entertaining thoughts of moving out a lot lately, and even if I had to struggle (and I know I would), it’s something I really feel I need to do. It’s part of this thing I’m going thorugh where I’m really focused on not needing anyone, and that comes from what might be my biggest issue: my growing anti-socialism. Lately it’s getting so bad that I don’t even want to be around my family anymore. There were a lot of people (percentage-wise anyway, I know like seven people) who I’d normally get along well with, even to the point where sometimes I’d wish they were around more often, but lately I’m just angry at everyone and try to be alone as much as possibe. I mean, I know that I’m the kind of person that’s going to have a lot of alone time (to put it nicely), and that doesn’t bother me, but it’s getting bad to the point where my civil nature is wearing thin. I’m not much for making friends, but the last thing I want is to make enemies, and this isn’t going to be helping that cause.

Of course, there’s always one exception to the rule, and mine is quite the horrid one. I know everyone has to sort this kind of thing out at some point, but I really feel like I should be above the “crush”. Seriously. It just feels so goddamned juvenile and ridiculous that I cannot stand suffering from it. I’m not fucking fourteen, I shouldn’t have to put up with this crap. Of course, I haven’t got anywhere near the proper people skills required to deal with something like this, and so like everything else, I just try to ignore it and make it go away. And we’re not even going to get into how well that’s working out. Hopefully ranting out a little like this will slow the burn a bit. It’s not much, but I know it’s out there where potentially anyone in the world can read it, so that’s somewhat comforting. Also, there’s no way in Hell I could ever directly talk to someone about it. That would make me feel like even more of a jackass.

Shit, I’ve gone on a little longer than I expected. Well, I guess I’ll wrap it up then. We haven’t even scratched the surface of my issues, but at least it feels a little better to get it out there. Some of it. There are a lot of things swimming around in my gigantic head that I don’t want to touch on even here. I mean, I know what all my problems are. I know exactly where they come from, and why they don’t go away or whatever. It’s not like I need a shrink to tell me why I’m so fucked up. I’ve heard that you’re only insane if you’ve got issues and you think you’re sane, so I guess I’m not crazy. Let’s give it some time though. A nuthouse might not be the best way to live, but damn, it would sure be a lot easier than having to deal with life.

Bring your attention to me

So Nintendo World Report is doing a big tribute to the GameCube this week. It’s a pretty awesome and extensive look back at all the great things about the lil’ purple box. The centerpiece of the tribute, though, is the Greatest GameCube Games feature. It’s nice to take a look back at some of the games that really helped the GC through its early/middle years. It’s just too bad it didn’t see equally good support near the end there. Solid list though. So far, anyway.

Aside from that junk, I don’t know. The internet’s been kinda boring lately. S’okay though, because I’ve been spending the past week or so absorbed in Hotel Dusk. It’s nice to see a really solid adventure-ish game on the DS. I mean, Trace Memory was good, but not “buy it” good. Hotel Dusk is totally a buyer though. It’s very seldom that I get so engrossed in the narrative of a video game (see Silent Hill and Tales of The Abyss), but then again, that’s about all Hotel Dusk has.

I think the thing about that is that when I like the story in a game, it’s really all about either the characters or the overall atmosphere. Recent Tales games have been full of really well-develpoed and often hilarious characters, rounded out with brilliant dialogue and high-grade voice acting. The Silent Hill series may be in rough waters as far as gameplay goes, but it’s never failed to present an immediate sense of dead and solitude. Oh sure, there are usually other characters around now and then, but they’re rarely there for any more than a quick jaw. Hell, even Killer7, a shooter of all things, presented a highly elaborate plot, yet it stayed enjoyable and never descended into complete retardation like, oh, let’s say Final Fantasy 7. It was really fragmented over the course of the game, but always remained smart and deep, ultimately tying into a thick, meaty plot in the end.

So yeah. All that nonsensical jabber to say that Hotel Dusk is really good. And maybe I place a little more importance on story than I’d previously assumed. At least when it benefits me.