Zen and the Art of Doing a Whole Lot of Nothing

Well, once again Spaces has changed. I no longer have my pink font option and it took me a good 2 minutes to realize that the "add" function to write a new entry was right above the old entry....Silly MSN...stop changing! Tongue out

In other news, I have been slightly ignoring my games lately in favor of 2 activities I used to do often: read books and go to the movies. Specifically, I saw the midnight premiere of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (otherwise known as "Harry Potter and everything but the Order of the Phoenix"), I finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" a couple of days ago (satisfying end to the series for me) and tonight RuFfNeCk and I are headed out to see the midnight premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" (woo hoo!) and last but not least we're going to the drive-in with friends on Saturday to see "Transformers" and "Harry Potter and the Order of etc and so forth". Should make for a fun time.

I did pick up Oblivion for a while the other day but just ended up running around and then quitting to play Animal Crossing Wild World. (Yes, I went back to my town...took me forever to clear the weeds!) Ah well...good times...

ICandee's Top Five: Retro Games Edition

My new favorite website: retrojunk.com. Why is it my new favorite site? Because at 30 years old I am already retro and apparently this is where my childhood has gone to die (or be fondly remembered, whatever). But what makes this site really great is that they have a commercials section: woo hoo! Nothing better than cheesy commercials from days of yore...ahhhh, smell the moldy smell of materialism...Therefore, please to enjoy

ICandee's Top Five: Retro Video Game Commercials

1. Super Mario Bros 2 (NES)-I realize that for Mario purists this game was a travesty, but my brother had this game and I do remember loving it (I could choose to play as Princess Peach!!):

2. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 2600)-Oh yeah baby, this was craptacular! My favorite part of this commercial however is the "Ethel Merman" Ms. Pac-Man singing "Don't you know, I'm more than Pac-Man with a bow!".

3. Atari's "Buy One Get One Free" campaign-Ah valley girls...where would the 80's be without you? This commercial makes me mortified to have grown up in the 80's and yes, I did talk like this sometimes...God help me, I did...

4. The Legend of Zelda (NES)-Best part of this commercial: "Whoa, nice graphics!". The rapping nerd is a nice touch too though. "Your parents help you hook it up!"

5. Nintendo Power Glove (NES)-Ah yes...the power glove...I guess we can't laugh too loud, Nintendo did change it to a remote like shape years later...

 

And there you have it, my top 5 video game commercials: retro style. Ever notice that video game commercials these days aren't really directed at kids anymore? I'd like to leave you with this last gem from the good 'ole days...A Super Mario Bros 3 cartoon entitled "Kootie Pie Rocks" wherein Princess Peach goes to see her favorite music group...Milli Vanilli.

OK, now I'm off to see if all of my E3 goodies are done downloading yet. If everyone could pause their downloads so that mine may finish, I would greatly appreciate it.

A Little From Column A, A Little From Column B

With E3 beginning, every blog and their grandmother is going to be writing about what's going on, therefore I am not going to bring you up to the minute news on E3...mainly because I don't get paid to do that so I'm not going to do it (in your face Corporate America!)...I'm also still bitter that I'll never be a booth babe since they decimated the size of E3, so although I will be watching, reading and waiting, there are hundreds of other fabulous blogs you can read for your news. I'm here to bring you the non-news...so hang on to your controllers because here we go!

1. I played my first PC game last night! American McGee's Alice. I must say that it's fabulously creepy and has a very cool art style. Only problem is that the whole "W-S-A-Damn I Can't Do This" controls that ruined it for me. I was backing Alice up like a Mac Truck trying to get her to turn around and ended up getting stuck in some sort of slime lake that I couldn't jump out of (I kept forgetting to move forward with "W" after hitting the space bar to jump) while stupid card guys pelted me with a fireball or something. You know, (at least for me) PC gaming is like driving a stick and console gaming is like driving an automatic. So a little practice is in order but it's a bruise to the pride when you can't play a cool game only because your fingers won't cooperate.

Interesting side note: As we're looking through all of RuFfNeCk's PC games to decide what would be best for me to try, he noticed that "Alice" is rated M for "Animated Violence and Animated Blood and Gore". Then he noticed that Call of Duty is rated T for "Blood and Violence". Ummmm...wha?

2. TMNT for the 360-Yes, yes a virtual shooting achievements in a barrel type of game, but it is fun to play. It's also even more fun because I rented it free with my Blockbuster Online monthly coupon that I can use on a game or movie. Woo! (I just realized that there's quite a bit of product placement in my blog as of late...I think I'm due some sort of compensation...or at least an article written about me called "Gaming and Blogs: Have Advertisers Gone Too Far?")

3. I was a member of Face Book for about 2 minutes before I was lost in a sea of confusion and deactivated my account. Sorry guys, I just don't get it...Do I have to use "W" to move forward? :P

4. Wowowowowow-I got my second achievement in DOAX2 the other night: all of Kokoro's suits. Woo hoo! Is there an achievement for most hours wasted in a game for nothing? Ah who cares-second achievement!!!

There's more but I'll save it for next time...Game on y'all (and a very merry E3!)!

And Now A Word From Overlord

Stupid minions...If I say go and blow up the Halflings hole thing they spawn from, I mean go and blow up the Halflings hole thing they spawn from!!!

Whew...it's hard being an Overlord. *turn to camera* Oh hi there! I'm the Overlord. You may remember me from such games as Overlord for the Xbox 360. You know, it's not always easy being an Overlord. You never know whether you should kill the human you just rescued or take his head with your axe. Some old minion is always yelling in your ear and telling you what to do, tower construction takes so long it might as well be a second Death Star and those minions you hired thinking it would be great to have someone else do all your dirty work? Well, they don't tell you about all the paperwork you have to do when one of those morons dies and believe me, they die...a lot. The minion insurance rate is so high these days I'd be better off taking over the world by myself. *chuckle* Yeah, it's not always easy being an Overlord.

But what is easy is eating a delicious Subway sandwich! *Hold up sandwich* With only 6 grams of fat or less, these babies are delicious and nutritious! Letting minions do all your killing and pillaging can make for one fat Overlord but now that I've made Subway's yummy 6 inch chicken breast sandwich part of my daily diet, I can eat and command my way to a slimmer, healthier me! Subway, eat fresh! *take bite of sandwich and smile* Ummmm, mmmmmm...Subway!

ICandee In Space

I finally decided to become a non-conforming conformist and created a My Space page yesterday. I know, I know...but the deed is done and there it is. I'm not abandoning MSN Spaces however and will probably copy blog entries from here to there for the most part so you won't be missing out on anything. It's nothing special but if you'd like to see it, you can check it out here. (Don't forget to send me a friend invite if you have a Space!)

In other news, I'm playing Overlord at the moment and might I just say that other than how slow I run (I am in full Sauron armor after all) the game is pretty wicked. My current mission is to find a mistress...oh yeah...

I Wish I Could Fight On A Boat

When I first heard that they were making a movie version of Dead or Alive, I rolled my eyes. Can't Hollywood just leave my games alone? Go think up your own stuff and quit ruining my games! But then again, a bunch of scantily clad girls jumping around and kicking butt? OK, I guess I can see the appeal of making that for the big(ger) screen. So I knew that it would suck but those are the breaks...Video games and movies just do not mix. Whether it's Super Mario Bros., BloodRayne or just a movie where characters play video games (i.e. Stay Alive) it just doesn't seem to work very well. And now, despite everything everyone else has said and despite my own misgivings, I have a confession to make:

This movie is not bad. I like this movie. And no, I don't mean this movie:

I do indeed mean this one:

This is the way game-to-movie translations should be done: know your material and never take yourself more serious than that. The material: people that fight go to tournaments where they fight. Period. Now I will admit that the last 15 minutes are wrapped up in some crazy scheme where you think they may just pull off the bad guy's mask and hear him exclaim "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!", Helena is not French but come sort of bubbly rollerblader and Devon Aoki scares me. Other than those things, DOA never strives beyond it's abilities and that makes this movie entertaining...to me anyway. I have to say that I was surprised to read reviews of how "boobtastic" this movie is...um, am I the only one to see that virtually none of these women have any kind of boobs to speak of? I mean, any true fans of the game (and by game I mean boobs) can see that compared with DOA 4 and DOA X2's extreme boob physics, this movie really took the tame approach. Yes, the girls are scantily clad, yes one of them does an entire fight scene in nothing but a towel and yes, there is an all-girl fight in the rain...but even with that, you see that in any movie these days and it's interesting what a tame approach they took. Even the obligatory volley ball scene is short and sweet and since these actresses aren't all that well endowed, it's not even a big deal. Funny thing is, I think I'm the only one who sees that.

Ah well, I liked the fights scenes, I like the sense of humor it had about itself (let's face it, DOA is no Oscar contender and it never pretends to be otherwise) and other than the three things listed above, I enjoyed this movie. It's short, it's fun and it's DOA. To each his own I suppose...If you'd like to read other reviews, just take the above sentence and say aloud the exact opposite. That's ok, I perfectly comfortable all alone in my I-Like-DOA-The-Movie-And-I'm-Proud camp...