Some Gaming Stuff...

Christmas is approaching, which means way too many videogames are currently being released. Here's what's been spinning in my consoles recently...

Soul Calibur II: I was a bit of a Soul Calibur junkie when we had our dreamcast hooked up a couple of years ago, so I was happy the current consoles finally have the sequel available. It plays just as well as the prior game, and it's accessible and deep at the same time. It is a little too friendly to button-mashing at times...but that's not too much of a problem. The single player Weapons Master mode adds some long term value to the game, and is an improvement over the "story mode" or whatever it was called in the prior game in the series...

Viewtiful Joe: This is really fun if you grew up with games in the eighties. It's an old fashioned side scrolling beat 'em up with a few new twists. The cell shaded graphics give a lot of charm and character to the game, and the fighting allows you to really have fun with how you win, and not just getting the job done. There's nothing like slowing down time and punching bullets and missiles back at attacking helicopters while fighting off spinning robots. I don't know if this will sell well here in the US (although I recall hearing that it didn't really even sell well in Japan either) but I hope it's successful since, so far, its one of the best games I've played this year.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run: Wow, it's a licensed game that doesn't stink. When I first heard about this title, a Grand Theft Auto clone w/ the Simpsons, I thought it would be awful. It's not, it quite fun. Solid writing and production help, as the really nail the humor and outlook of the show. Only downside, already evident fairly early in the game, is a lack of variety in missions. There's really just races, destroy another car missions, and collecting missions (with a few platforming tasks thrown in.) Still, it's real fun for any Simpsons fan, which can't be said about most prior games featuring the famous family.

Divine Intervention?

OK. All I can say to this is...Jesus!

Another Dem Debate...

Well, we were graced with another Democratic Presidential Candidates debate last Thursday. The format was terrible, with half the time spent on a chaotic roundtable and half with "Town Hall" questions. With nine candidates (about half of whom have no chance at getting the nomination), there were lots of attacks without rebuttals and little substantively said. Not unusual for a debate but it seemed to be exacerbated by the format, and the moderator (Woodruff was awful.)

In terms of candidates, I didn't think anyone was particularly bad except people who didn't matter (Kucinich & CMB). Kerry was more lively than he's been before, but still had a tendency to be unbearably dull. He did get the best line of the night with "there are two ways for you to have lower prescription drug costs. One is you could hire Rush Limbaugh's housekeeper... or you can elect me president of the United States." It may not be true, but it was funny.

Clark and Dean bore the brunt of the attacks since they're seen as either the frontrunners or at least as the most dangerous candidates. Clark didn't have a great debate but at least didn't' get TOO flustered over the attacks. Dean almost lost it when he got ambushed by Judy Woodruff with the Kerry "document" about his record with prescription drug plans. Dean's response covered it well, but I wish he had maybe mentioned the difference between being an executive and being a legislator and thrown it back at Kerry.

Edwards did fine, I just wonder if he'll ever collect more supporters or if he's in this for the VP nom or a later run. His rhetoric, aside from a little too much emphasis on his modest upbringing, is right where the Dems can just nail the Republicans in 2004, but it's not catching on among Democratic voters...Maybe he just looks too young.

Lieberman didn't really hurt himself this time, since he didn't declare victory for not being booed, although his "I'm a social conservative" speech seemed out of place.

Overall, I don't think this yielded any substantial revelations, but we should still have an interesting campaign season coming up.

Thoughts on Angel s5x02 Just Rewards:

Well, Spike's finally here. And from the early ratings for the first two episodes it seems to be helping on that side, but is his presence helping the show creatively? It's probably to early to tell, but here are some thoughts on "Just Rewards."

On a positive note, Marsters seems to work well with the Angel cast. The interaction between Angel and Spike was generally engaging, although the "I'm an irritating ghost" dynamic runs the risk of being overplayed if it goes on to long.

While the villain of the episode comes off as a very "one and done" kind of threat, the actor portraying the necromancer brought a wonderful look/voice/feel to the part.

On a negative note, there didn't seem to be a lot of dramatic tension to the episode. While lots of reasonably interesting long term problems were hovering around, the show's new setting seems a little bit stagnant. It's probably due to the fact that, aside from Gunn's infusion of LawyerPower, we haven't gotten much new with any of the other characters, just LOTS of Angel and, with this ep, lots of Spike too. Even some of the earliest episodes of Season 1 seemed to have more than this ep did. However, last season started somewhat slowly as well, so I'm willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt.

Overall, a decent episode, hopefully setting up some more interesting things in the long run...

Well, we've moved one step too close to the world of "Demolition Man" for my tastes. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been elected Governor of California, and I can't help but think...What the hell does this mean!?

For starters, it means that various State Democratic Parties in traditionally liberal states need to wake up and realize that having your state institutions run as pay-for-play, semi-corrupt institutions doesn't cut it. Regardless of whether the state leans left or not, they won't keep voting for the types of people who give the words "Career Politician" their bad rep. For examples of this: Parris Glendenning & Gray Davis.

I don't know what it means for California specifically, except for the fact that I'm suspicious of Schwarzenegger since he seems to be surrounding himself with some of the seedier California Republican operatives (at least in his campaign.) Also, while some people are trying to read this as a Republican takeover of the state, I don't think that's the case. The November 2004 election should be the test of that, and I have serious doubts that George W. Bush is capable of even coming close to winning California next year.

Hi! Welcome to MorseCode. This blog is basically going to be a venue where I can write about anything that comes to mind. Expect frequent posts on subjects as diverse as Sports, Politics, Arts & Entertainment and more.