Rorschach.net

Cartoon network rickrolled NBC viewers and the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving parade. Yeah the meme may be waaay past its time, but you’ve got to give credit for the execution.

If we didn’t need to restart the last chapter our run of the No Mercy campaign last night would have fit nicely into the 90 minute feature time limit. Adam, Lex, Matt and I battled through countless zombies (actually the count was just shy of 1,800) mowing through the horde and the boss mutated zombies until reaching the top of the hospital and calling in a rescue chopper.

Our last stand as the chopper came was a grueling 15 minutes of continual assault. As usual when the first tank (basically a movable wall) showed up we lost our cohesion but quickly regrouped. Lex was the first to fall right before we heard the rescue chopper approach. As we made the break for it I was quickly swamped and taken down. I was too far away so I told Matt and Adam to go on without me, I was done for. Adam was in the lead but he turned around to help Matt who got pinned by a smoker. His move turned out to be a sacrifice as it drew the attention of another tank. Matt saw an opening and leapt for the chopper not giving Adam a second thought to become the sole survivor that escaped.

I hope you’re happy Matt. Now you’re going to have to write three letters to our mom explaining how the sacrifice of her only boys allowed you to survive the zombie apocalypse. At least until Tuesday when we try again.

Xbox Avatar

With the upgrade of the Xbox Dashboard (called the New Xbox Experience or NXE) you have to create a little cartoon avatar. Here’s my guy. I went for as close to realism as I could with the limited options. I was quite surprised that they had my style of glasses available.

Out of all the games I’ve been playing in the last few weeks, the one that I keep coming back to is Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. Rare has developed a reputation of hiding deep games under a veneer of color and fuzziness. Conker Live and Reloaded was a pretty hardcore class based shooter. Viva Pinata is a deep management and collector game. Banjo Kazooie is the best example yet of user generated content.

The original Banjo was something of a Mario 64 clone. This version (8 years after the last one) does away with most of the platforming and relies on customizable vehicles. Customizable being the key word here. As the game progresses you unlock hundreds of components and snap them together LEGO-style to make pretty close to anything you want. The only requirements are a seat for your character. If you want to make a land vehicle you add some wheels, fuel, and an engine. Wings and propellers (or jets later in the game) and you have a plane. Tilt the propellors up and you’ve got a helicopter. Add some floaters and you’ve got a boat. The possibilites are near endless.

All the components have statistics of weight and durability which ties directly into the game’s physics engine. Overload one side and you’ve got balance and handling issues. Bigger engines means more power but also more weight and fuel consumption. Most weapons require ammo boxes. Do you attach critical components directly together running the risk of losing something when you take a hit or do you use fragile poles to tie everything together or or the additional strength and weight and space of body parts?

Unlike Spore, everything that you design matters. The ability to make your own designs (and share them online or in multiplayer) is very powerful. Don’t be fooled by the colorful and fuzzy exterior, BK provides as much depth in construction as Viva Pinata provided with garden management. It’s a must get especially at $40.

It’s a great time for videogames. There’s a mess of games out there that are all high quality and has the potential to take up hours of your time. Here’s my list of games I won’t be playing, games I want to play but don’t have time, and games I’ve already played.

Never Playing:

• Little Big Planet – Don’t own a PS3 and don’t intend to
• Star Wars: Force Unleashed – I already saw the cutscenes on YouTube, which is the best part
• WoW: Wrath of the Lich King – I’ve never played World of Warcraft, not gonna start now
• Resistance 2 -  See Little Big Planet
• Guitar Hero: World Tour – Rock Band 2 says hi!

No Time to Play:

• Mirror’s Edge – Looks awesome, heard combat is a weak point
• Warhammer: Age of Reckoning: If I was to pick up a muhmorperger this would be it
• Endwar – A console RTS that works? Yes, please.
• Gears of War 2 – Probably the biggest game of the year
• Saints Row 2 – Like GTA, but cartoony and explody and fun
• Far Cry 2 – Nothing to do with Crytek, but a good game
• Dead Space – Unique IP tries to bring some System Shock love
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise – Update to a great game

Now Playing:

• Fable 2 – Everything that Fable 1 wanted to be
• Fallout 3 – I’m a wasteland warrior!
• Left 4 Dead – This may be my Counterstrike
• Spore – An excellent introduction to videogames
• Banjo Kazooie: N&B – More on this in a later post