2011 PAX recap

8/31/2011 PAX recap

Here's my quick hit recap at what I saw at PAX.  Lots of good stuff this year.  Tried to mention some things other outfits wouldn't.

• Sol Exodus: Nice wing commander genre coming back. Will watch this one. http://solexodus.com/media/videos/
• Bloodrayne: Looks way better than anyone could have hoped and the gameplay is fluid and beautiful. Suprising! http://www.psnstores.com/2011/08/pax-prime-hands-on-bloodrayne-betrayal/
• Retro City Rampage: Must get this game.. 8bit Grand Theft Auto and a bazillion other shout outs to other old school games. Website is awesome! http://www.retrocityrampage.com
• Geek chick table: this thing rocks! Spendy though. Total rich nerds dream, and the wife would actually like it. Check it out at the bottom of the list: http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/08/31/the-hottest-new-tabletop-games-of-pax-prime-2011/
• Starcraft 2 1 on 1 with LZ gamer (example vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phf081G65u4)
• Oni press booth, got scott pilgrim poster signed by creator Brian Lee O'Malley! Had to carry it around all day, made it without much damage though.  Looks like they are extras from these links: http://radiomaru.com/2011/07/14/exclusive-limited-prints-for-san-diego-comic-con/ http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/16/bryan-lee-omalley-japanese-scott-pilgrim-posters-comic-con/
• Rage - Much prettier in person than the online videos which weren't impressive to me.
• Mass effect 3 - Saw a demo performed by a dude on the podium where your attacking a baddy in a mech suit.  Looked fab but there were still framerate issues. Looked smoother overall though than the previous 2.
• Gears 3 - I dare say no one can still match the graphics of GOW.  I was watching some players do some multi and they were running around as these alien critters. The fact that they were FAST made me all the more impressed as the frame rate was still smooth. I was used to the game being so slow that it was a great comparison to how good that dev team is.
• Firefall - Ads ads ads everywhere! In the bathrooms, on the escalators, pervasive. I guess the online buzz is really good but this didnt impress me in the slightest. Looks team fortressy with a giant bionic suit look that is ripped straight out of tron/portal/mass effect/et al.
• Thunderstone - Physical card game that plays a lot like Dominion but fighting monsters in a dungeon. Once we got the mechanics down it was really fun. Totally would play it again, trying different strategies like you would in a RPG. (Only magic users? Emphasize the theif to mess with the other players?) Checking the link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/53953/thunderstone it seems they have a billion expansions already like Dominion so get out your wallet.
• Power grid - Physical board game that plays a lot like ticket to ride, but worse. You bid on power cards and place pieces on the board, and connect cities together and such.  Problem is, by the time you start colliding with other players cities the game near over.  
• Paul and Storm/jon coulton concert - P&S were actually quite fun at the Paramount.  They had the crowd really participate. Lots of good laughs.  I especially liked their Johnny song about fireworks. Way hey boom and up she goes! JoCo was boring, and I left early.
• Fez - AGI style graphics (to me different than 8bit, think kings quest instead of super mario) on crack. The rotation element made it look real sexy.
• Just dance 3, competition for dance central, but Jump On It is the worst song ever, even when someone in Boba Fett cosplay is dancing to it.
• Rocksmith - Neat simple concept: use a dongle to hook up your real guitar and play songs the real way. Unfortunately, what looked like a 15 minute line was actually an hour, as they went totally hands on with people who came in to play. Having some semblence of skill would be helpful to speed it up a bit as most looked totally clueless. Good news though, I posted the highest score the guy saw on the Duck shooting minigame. Also played Radioheads High and Dry and worked on a few chords.. Coulda done it on a harder difficulty but it was neat to see the chords swooping in to hit. Probably will buy this as its sorta like interactive tablature.
• Battleblock theater - I think this ones too high concept to give any comments to, as I didnt really know how to play it and got frusterated and stuck. Art was classic Behemoth though and looked really polished.  I bet with some practice on the controls it'll be badass.
• Goldeneye - Nothing new that would make me choose this game over any other shooter.

There ya go, was meant to be posted like 2 weeks ago but busy busy busy. Let me know what you think!

What I watched: Whip It

This continued a hot streak of neat teen/twenty-something movies.

How nice to see Juliette Lewis http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000496/ again. She just has amazing energy on screen. How old is she??

Lots of neat little performances by the director (Drew Barrymore) herself, Maeby from Arrested Development (Alia Shawkat), and that SNL weirdo who tones it down a lot. Also Ellen Paige's dad (Daniel Stern), who was the crazy robber in Home Alone, did a great job! He uses a mischevious smile for great effect.

Awesome soundtrack.. too bad "28" by the Nick and Nora screenwriter Lorene Scafaria isn't on there. It's a neat old timey piano ditty at the end credits. I did find it on an EP in iTunes though.
Also in this research I found an awesome site (Reelsoundtrack Blog http://reelsoundtrack.wordpress.com/) that tracks the full soundtrack of movies. You'd be surpised how many don't make it to the album. There are like 50+ songs in Whip It and less than half are on there.

Anyway, the movie is great. Sweet and funny and well shot. Shame it didn't make any money.

Random theory: It's the music that makes movies re-watchable

Music is infinite in replayability.  How many times have I listened to my favorite albums?  Hundreds? That reason alone helps bolster watching a movie again.

I stopped (ok trying to stop) owning movies, because how is a guy with a job and 2 kids going to have time to watch something more than once?
Well there are 2 movies currently in my mind that have that exception. Fight Club and Scott Pilgrim. Well not only do the movies kick ass in their own right, it's the music thats the kicker.
Extra ++ for songs written for the movie too, rather than a compilation of existing ones.

I own both soundtracks! I do NOT usually own them unless there was some song from some band I had to have.
Examples:
Romeo + Juliet for Radiohead
Angus (did i even see that?) for Weezer
Ransom/Singles/Batman and Robin et al for Smashing Pumpkins (I'm a whore)

Let's thing of other movies with awesome soundtracks that I could easily watch again:

Any Tarantino movie
Trainspotting
Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels
Go
Adventureland
Hedwig
Star Wars and Indiana Jones (of course)
Almost Famous
Magnolia (those 2 Aimee Mann songs pretty much made that movie)
Full Metal Jacket
Stand by Me
Watchmen (Bob Dylan beginning with the camera flashs also make that movie. Times they are ah' changin..)
Flash Gorden (see earlier post)

Cheesy 80s soundtrack alert!
Top Gun
Ghostbusters
Back to the Future (huey lewis baby: thats the POWER of luuuv)
Karate Kid (your the best, there WAAAS!)
Revenge of the Nerds
Most if not all the teenage angst movies. (not going to cover them just seek a top 10 list on the net)

Wow did not expect to write that much.  In conclusion theres nary a movie I'd watch again without good music.

I have the brain of a 10th grader

I just realized something. After watching Scott Pilgrim again and getting all fuzzy with nostalgia about old video games and rock shows and ramen every other meal i figured it out.
I will forever be culturally 16. Lets break it down:

Music:
I mean holy crap, what music do i listen to? Bands that are from or sound like the 90s. I still have all the Smashing Pumpkins albums on the idevice.
I whine that alt rock today is too progressive and meandery, and every Pandora station I have plays the Strokes.

Books:
What do I read? Hmm, let me list the last few books (in order of newest read):

Scott pilgrim volumes 1-6
Red pyramid
Percy jackson books 1-5 + lost hero
Some han solo book (yes im a nerd, please dont ask me how many star wars books ive read)
Twilight series and the Host (yes i did)
Tales of beatle the bard (of course i read harry potter)
Master and commander
I count 1 book that an adult would try to read if they weren't regressing to their teenage nostalgia (which we all know we do).

Games:
I know games are now considered OK for the bigs, but I still play when I get a chance. What games? Ones that remind me of mario kart (hell I still play it), goldeneye (FPS's like call of duty), and side scrolling marios (super meat boy)

Guitar:
Every once in a while I have delusions of grandeur and play guitar for an hour (once every 6 months!) and visualize my office a recording studio, and play songs I wrote when I was.. hey! 16.

Sports:
I run around like an idiot every Friday playing basketball pretending my knees aren't getting old (at least I can still hit a 3). 

Yep, i am in either middle school or highschool. We work all day so that we can spend our free time to relive our past. Whats keeping me back in the land of 30-something? 

• Kids. Well they keep me bouncing from being 5 and being 30. Responsible adult vs playing tickle monster.

• A good cry during a kids movie like Up! I swear just the sound of that theme gets me going.

• Shows like True Blood. Yeah thats for adults. Although I did see full metal jacket when I was like 10.

• Taxes. Hmm I have to pay those.

Btw i just removed those double spaces after each period. Ack! I just did it again. That rule (which is wrong) is still deeply embedded. (Ack! again!)

Why TV shows usually suck by the 2nd or 3rd season

Too many themes
The characters regress in order to work them in. Just put the themes down and focus on actually having coherent stories.
Example: I'm so tired of Lea Michele (Glee) being sad and singing show tunes to things i care not about cause she did it to herself because she's a selfish bitch.

Actors too popular
They write extra crap to give people more lines or whatever and it ruins the vision.
Hypothetical: we have an actor, they are really popular, but his character was only intended for 8 episodes worth of content and we have absolutely nothing to give him but lets write him in for another 3 seasons.
Example: Everything past the first season of Heroes.  Really? They couldn't kill off anyone?  Global success ruined the integrity of the writing hands down.

All the writers and producers leave
Example: Writers strike.  Almost everything (including the near untouchable Lost: season 3) not only got terrible ratings but they were terrible episodes!
I have no sources on this and its probably all theory, but after the first season everything seems to go to hell and it has to be the non participation in the original people on the project.

See also:

• Prison Break
• Desperate Housewives
• Heroes
• Glee
• Brothers and Sisters
• Heroes
• Heroes
• ..and on and on

Brad Womack is totally not writing his Bachelor blog

First off, don't judge me! I watch cool stuff like True Blood and Lost too I swear! Me and my wife need a few brain drain shows to keep the mouth foam down.
One of my few pleasures is reading the EW recaps to validate how retarded everyone is on the show and I saw a link from "I'm Chris Harrison" of Designer's Challenge fame linking to Brad's blog on People and I HAVE to share.

Some special quotes no man in their right mind would ever write, even if they were gay:

1.
"The exciting part of the date was Cirque du Soleil! Ashley and I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform in a live show. I'm a huge fan of all of the Cirque shows, so I'll never forget that."

Really dude?  I love shows and musicals and such but ALL of the cirque shows? Never admit something like that! It sounds like Cirque advertisement. But wait, its not you writing is it.  Also ending that first sentence with an exclamation is totally hop n clap. Tee hee! Thou art cirque du freak.

2.
"See ya next week!
– Brad Womack"

LIES! That can't be you can it? Using ya? LOL OMG wut. (im being facetious people, i dont actually say those things. GOSHDUH!)  "Later" or "Regards" would be a bit more plausible.

3.
"Let me make something clear ... in no way did my bad mood have anything to do with the beautiful country of Costa Rica! I've never seen a destination that has such beauty as well as a plethora of activities that one can do to enjoy the landscape. We were able to zipline through the treetops, rappel down numerous waterfalls, and explore a cave that is 40 million years old! For anyone that has an adventurous side, or even if you want to just relax on a beach, Costa Rica is the place to go!"
Each time I read that it gets better! Another shameless plug by a sponsor that can't possibly be written by this man.

Any way, please see all the glory for yourself.  Their navigation sucks and I had to comb through to find them. Why don't these magazines know what how to use an index or table of contents?
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20464498,00.html
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20462497,00.html
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20460174,00.html

My son turns 5

Monumental event. Already?
He who makes me old and young in tandem.
Asks the tough, epic questions no adult even dares to ask.
What child sleeps barely more than me? Mine.
5 years of cleaning his wake of chaos.
Piles of dismantled Lego, Playmobil. C3PO's head on Han Solo? Yes.
Loves his sister, fights his sister, loves his sister.
How much Caillou have I watched?
My snuggler, my tough guy, my muse, my sweet boy.
Here's to my little dude.