Edward's May 2014 Mix

This is has been a strange month. Well, in a good way, actually.  Evening porches are graced by people conversing with cigarettes and coffee in hand. Pedestrians populate the sidewalks and jogging trails in shorts. Winter coats are going into long term closets. Spring is in full swing. And of course that means summer is just around the corner. But the strangeness I'm talking about is that in this merry month of May you'll notice I don't have many PC games listed. My time has been consumed by other media. I'd like to think I took a break from gaming, but oh no, that's not quite the case. What I've done is bought into a new game that has consumed me!

1. Shiny Toy Guns We Are Pilots & Season of Poison on CD

I'm a big fan of The Birthday Massacre. If you like grunge guitar work and beautiful landscapey synthesizers played from a moon filled haunted house, then TBM might be right up your alley. Now imagine TBM's first cousin, the grunge guitar work accompanied by dreamy landscape synth music, but played from an abandoned house on a gray day in a big city back alley, holes in the roof, rain falling in sheets. This is Shiny Toy Guns. First introduced to me by my friend, Dillon Gard, I was hooked upon my first listen. "You Are the One," and "Rainy Monday," are excellent first choice listens to see what this band is about. Their remake of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" is brilliant.

2. Angels And Airwaves We Don't Need to Whisper on CD
I wasn't a fan of Blink 182 when they first came out years ago. They were like some garage band that snuck out of the pages of National Lampoon magazine. And then I really listened to Tom Barker's drumming and Tom Delonge's barre chords on a simple Fender Stratocaster with no special effects. I realized these guys were really talented. And then with each passing Blink album there seemed to be a thread of maturity interwoven into each one. This was a band growing before our eyes . . eh, umm, ears, rather. Then they broke up. Out of the ashes was born Angels And Airwaves. Delonge's somewhat nasally voice spewing out lyrics that could be interchanged into any other A&A or any later Blink song is guilty of repetition, no doubt. But I can't stop listening to this stuff. Blink's original soundtracks to youth, rebellion, and teen angst has mellowed and matured.

3. House of Cards Season 1 on Netflix
My daughter was home for a visit from Chicago. I was out with friends, and when I came home she was sprawled on the couch watching a series episode of something on television. She explained it was a new original Netflix production helmed by (and starring)  Kevin Spacey based on a British political drama. I appropriately winced and mouthed, BORING! But then I proceeded to watch it until the end. I was ensorcelled! I think this could be Spacey's magnum opus role. He's a South Carolina whip congressman who is looking forward to his new appointment as Secretary of State. Just when he's about to prepare his acceptance speech he discovers he's been passed up by the very people he groomed into office! He goes on a vendetta to not only discredit the buffoons who had him passed over, he sets his sights on becoming the next president. The under the table antics he and his equally rapacious wife employ for his crusade make this a compelling series to watch. It's depressing in a way if this show reflects Washington authentically. We are peons and how we as simpletons vote and think our opinions and stances matter make little difference in the game of big politics.

 

4. The Wild Wild West  Season Four on DVD

You've heard me say this before, but the kids on the block where I lived in elementary school in Urbana, Illinois had Batman and The Hulk as superheroes. I was an exception. My hero was James West. The fisticuff pretty boy who worked for the US Secret Service was bigger than life to me. Having acquired the whole series in the handsome box set allows me to relive those memories. I'm watching season four now, which I've not seen since 1969. It's not quite as campy as the old Lost in Space episodes I also loved, but it is quite funny to recognize the same four stuntmen dressed as different cowboys, dockworkers, jail guards, etc. and realizing when they enter the scene there is inevitably about to be a knockdown drag out fistfight. And the environments of this show, oh man. It's all straight out of an H.G. Wells/Jules Verne concoction. This is the show that pretty much gave birth to the Steampunk genre. Who would have known back in 1965?

5. Baal by Robert R. McCammon
Sometimes called the poor man's Stephen King, I think Robert R. McCammon is an underrated writer. His novel, Swan Song, is every bit as well written as King's The Stand, and a hardbound edition of his Boy's Life shall forever reside on my bookshelf. Baal, his first novel seems to be moving along as a quick easy read. I can tell it's a freshman effort, but along with his other early novels McCammon refused to allow reprints because he felt they weren't written well enough. I spotted this hard to find gem for a buck on the clearance rack at Half Price Books. This concerns a demon taking the guise of a boy at an orphanage. McCammon's characterizations are decently crafted, and I can see this book paving the way for his later and better written material.

6. The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore on Kindle
Most modern horror movies have lost the spark of their yesteryear counterparts. A typical vampire film has the main character spewing about for the first hour trying to convince the other characters he or she has actually seen a vampire. Enter Hammer Films. Hammer Films was a studio that took the horror genre very seriously. A typical Hammer film would open with the inn closing the doors for the night and barring them to prevent entry from the aforementioned vampire. In 1961 they released one of the greatest werewolf films of all time, The Curse of the Werewolf. The titular star was Oliver Reed in his first role. After seeing the movie for about the seventh time I became curious about the novel on which it was based. Unfortunately, the novel was selling for ridiculously exorbitant prices. Thank goodness for the Amazon Kindle. I found a Kindle edition for less than three bucks. This novel is incredibly more detailed than the movie, although it does take some liberties. The book is lusty, atmospheric and engaging. If you like gothic horror this is worth checking out. This book could be to werewolf folklore what Stoker's Dracula was to the vampire lore, or the quintessence of Frankenstein's monster birthed by Mary Shelley's brilliant novel. 

7. Hearthstone on PC
This is the only game I've mentioned this month. There's a reason: it's about the only game I've played this month. Blizzard has a corner on Internet gaming addiction, and this game is living proof. It's a collectible card game akin to Magic: The Gathering, but this is the kindergarten version. You play online with human opponents, yet you can't talk to them. You acquire cards, some quite valuable, but there is no trading them let alone selling them. An average session has you winning two out of six games. The forums even allege that many of the games are comprised of Blizzard bots instead of real players. So, what's the big deal? It's that chance you might unlock some seriously phat loot which you can use as a component in your next killer deck. This game is in beta and free to play. I'm telling you now, don't go check it out. Save your sanity and your life. Remember, I warned you. Don't. Go. There.
 

Edward's April 2014 Mix

Spring is here, freaking finally. The old Earth has awakened from her zombie like slumber and wrapped herself in zeal and vim. It's the time for new beginnings. It's also time for me to trim my rosebushes that at this point look like giant skeletal hands with outstretched fingers, and time for me to break out the ladder and clean the old leaves out of my gutters (something I should have done in the fall!) but how can I when the days are intimating the approaching summer and I just can't resist the temptation to saddle my Vespa up and hit the road? And then there's so much good stuff coming out keeping me busy indoors? Have you seen the new collector set coming out for Wolfenstein: The New Order? Egads! I've never bought a collector's edition for anything because a hundred plus bucks is just too much to pay for something like that. But, hmmm . . .that Wolfenstein set may be my first. Oh, wait. I lied. I bought Star Trek Online, the collector's edition (and paid $80.00) for it, and guess what? The game was a dud. How could I have known? I mean, come on, this was Star Trek!! Oh well, will I ever learn? The answer is no, probably not. I've never played a Tropico game before, but I have officially added Tropico 5 to my Steam wish list. And I'm embracing the changes the developers are making to Assetto Corsa on a regular basis. Each new patch on this most awesomest car racing simulation makes it feel like a new game. This is one early access game I've fully bought into. The gutters and the rosebushes can wait. After all, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

1. Walt Disney's Peter Pan on DVD

The last time I watched this was on videocassette with my oldest daughter who was about three years old at the time. I just had the pleasure of watching it again with my four year old grandson. The charm is still the same; some things never change. This was the first time Disney studios actually hired real life models to act out the scenes created on storyboards and the cartoonists drew the actors' movements into classic Disney animation. Disney has been the subject of controversy through the ages, whether it be seemingly innocuous racism exhibited in Songs the of the South, or antics created by disgruntled employees in the guise of phallic underwater castles on Little Mermaid videocassette covers, or suggestive words appearing in Lion King smoke clouds. It's nice to be able to own and enjoy such classics like Peter Pan that heralded a time when Disney wasn't trying to be so steadfastly politically correct or given to political liberalism.

2. Deus Ex: Invisible War on PC 

Like my cousin, Justin Rexroad is fond of saying, PC Gamer Magazine is my bible. But I'm not sure I agree with them in awarding Deus Ex the best PC game of all time. True, it was innovative for its time, and its clunky AI was probably the very first instance of emergent gameplay in the history of PC gaming, but after playing through it a few years ago, and the not so distant creation of the remarkable Deus Ex: Revolutions, I knew I had to tackle Deus Ex: Invisible War, which is basically Deus Ex 2.  Like I said in last month's post, the game didn't quite live up to the merits of the original. And I can say this with credibility since I have now beat the game. The game was a narrow corridor experience at best, with interminably long load screens and bland graphics that look like the developers who created the game for the consoles were forced to stay over late and get some overtime in to port the game over to the PC. There was a saving grace, however. I liked the multiple endings (a trait carried over from the first game.) All that I considered sacred I finally destroyed in the end because I thought it was the best decision. I was simply being true to my school. And the end result, the product of my final decision made the game worth playing through.

3. Far Cry 3 on PC
 When Far Cry came out in 2004 it got its thunder shoplifted by Doom 3, which was unfortunate because I thought Far Cry was a much better game. My mouth dropped open when I approached the opening of the first cave and I experienced the postcard vista of peering out of the cave at the island which became the real character of the game. (The game began its life as a tech demo to show off Nvidia technology to business developers.) And then when I encountered the rusted out hulk of the aircraft carrier which was almost big enough to be the standalone environment for the whole game I realized this would be a game I would never forget. The series leveled the awe factor with Far Cry 2 which became the longest FPS I've ever played, clocking in at an astonishing 74 hours. It employed truly immersive mechanics such as bringing a compass or a map up to the player's face in real time as he or she were driving or walking. There was none of the ESC key bullcrap that paused the game and let you catch your breath. I'm about 30 hours into Far Cry 3, and at this point I'm eschewing the story missions to scoop up relics and lost letters scattered around the map like hidden Easter eggs. I'm drawn in, however, so much so that the $12.00 I spent on the game in a Steam sale easily trumps a $2,000 vacation to a Caribbean Island. Speaking of Steam, I wish this game had Steam achievements instead of Ubisoft's also ran "UPlay" interface where I have no friends and I feel as if my trophies go unseen hanging on a wall in my villa on Mars.

 

4. Mission Impossible: Season One on Netflix

I'm still in season one enjoying the predicaments the Impossible Mission task force gets into. I clearly see where the show is easily the paradigm for such wonderful things as MacGyver, No One Lives Forever and even Austin Powers. Martin Landau is brilliant in his role, and Greg Morris as Barney is the perfect complement. I believe the show ran seven seasons; I can see why. Even the theme music quickens my heart. If you have played Monolith's wonderfully crafted No One Lives Forever on PC, or you like James Bond flicks, you need to check this series out.

 

5. Bad Company: The Original Bad Co. Anthology on CD

Sticking out like a ruby in a haystack, I recently picked up this twin CD slipcase set at my local Half Price Books. How could I not pick it up? I didn't realize when the band formed in 1973 they used Led Zeppelin's privately owned studio and rubbed shoulders with the band on a regular basis. Paul Rodgers has one of the most appropriate voices for rock and roll music, and he ties with my other favorite voice of rock music, Joe Elliot of Def Leppard. This band's name says it all, a name that matches their badassery.  

 

6. Star Trek: Original Series Season One on DVD

I've watched this series in its entirety at least once, and I've watched some episodes a half dozen times over the years. My last year home I remember watching the series with my stepfather and I recently loaned him the series for nostalgia's sake. And wouldn't you know, I've been going to his house to watch the episodes with him. It's deja vu all over again, just 34 years later, yet Spock's logic and amiability and Kirk's very human ability to lead a starship remain unchanged. The year I left home I enlisted in the US Navy, and I hated it, a dour experience, I refer to it as my four year deep hell hole, but the one good thing through it all is it put me on that strange but common ground with the crew of the Enterprise.

 

7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I'm only in the first 130 pages of this book, but I can already tell I never want it to end. It has that same powerful effect as Fannie Flagg's magical, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café or Peter Hedge's compelling What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Gruen writes from a male perspective and she pulls it off as if she were a red blooded American male in a past life and never forgot the experience. Her characterizations come across so well I feel as if I'm watching a stage play rather than reading a book. Her power of description puts me right in the circus train sleeping on wet hay, moonlight spilling over me through the slats, and the stink of animal manure penetrating my nostrils.

 

8. Train Simulator 2014 on PC

Trains have always been in the background of my life. At eight and nine years old I lived down the street from a train yard. I used to lie awake at night and cry myself to sleep to the sound of those lonesome train engines winding up and crawling down as they moved cars back and forth building consists. Christmas at eight years old I got an electric train for Christmas, a tiny N scale jobbie that was a world in miniature for me. My mother herded my sister and I up in an act of near violent desperation and we left my alcoholic father in the middle of the night. I remember glancing back at the house, my electric train left behind forever. My ninth birthday my mother tried to make it up to me, being a single mother on a very limited income she bought an HO scale electric train from a local Montgomery Wards store. It was a customer return, a typical, "purchase as is." It didn't work. That train set got left behind too, but that's another story. But who needs electric trains anymore, anyway, when you've got Train Simulator 2014 on your computer? Deemed the most expensive PC game ever made (buying the all inclusive DLC can run up a bill of $2,000) I only buy the locales, routes and trains I want. And although the sim gets a large number of haters on the Steam forums, I find the game almost a religious experience. People think driving a train is nothing more than controlling a throttle lever and going forward and reverse. There are sections of track with varying speed limits, and crossings, and the comfort of passengers to consider while taking sharp curves, etc. It can become all engrossing, and this simulation proves it. Sitting in a locomotive with the tiny interior gauge and button lights sparkling like Christmas tree decorations in the night, pouring rain outside and knowing you have a hundred miles to make before morning, this is simulation software at its best.

 

Edward's March 2014 Mix

This winter just doesn't want to let go. I know, I know, my rantings here about the weather are worse than an Oscar Wilde quote. (He once said "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.") But still, this winter just refuses to let go, and I simply hate it. I mean, it would be cool if I had a thermos full of hot chocolate and was involved in a Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings marathon. Or I had just started playing Skyrim, but I'm not. After finishing Mass Effect 2 I'm taking a breather from heavy RPGs. I'm intentionally playing lighter stuff, perhaps so I can depart my computer chair more guilt free when the sun does shine and the out of doors calls to my inner self, and I can finally succumb to those primal urges to feel the earth beneath my feet and the road under the wheels of my Vespa.

 

1. The United States of Leland on DVD

This movie was recommended to me a long time ago by my friend, Gene Clifford. I watched it and found it brazenly profound. It's the tale of an empathetic individual who does something terrible, or seemingly so from an outsider's perspective, but by so doing is simply following a driven desire to make the world a better place because its sadness overwhelms him on a daily basis. At first we are horrorstruck by the character (so greatly played by Ryan Gosling) but then who, having a heart, cannot fall victim to his noble intentions and become sympathetic to his plight? I recently watched this again, and rediscovered why Ryan Gosling is probably one of my favorite contemporary actors, right up there with Edward Norton. Sitting in a juvenile school classroom, Leland (Ryan Gosling) is asked to describe Venice, Italy. And his answer is, "Footsteps. There are no cars there, and you can hear everybody's footsteps." What an amazing way to look at the world. If you can find this movie (I wish you luck) check it out. You won't soon forget it.   

2. ARMA II on PC 

Probably the greatest (and most realistic) military combat simulator on the planet. This game makes Call of Duty and the Battlefield series look like products made by a junior high school class dabbling in computer programming/game design. I've talked about this before, but this game was my first experience with emergent gameplay (where the AI does things the programmers didn't anticipate) and it makes each scenario totally unpredictable, and is the stuff of legendary next day at work water cooler stories.  Granted, the developers cheated in that every AI NPC is a deadly marksman from 1500 meters away, but as long as you go into this knowing that, this is the most realistically immersive experience out there outside of actually donning a pair of BDUs, lacing up combat boots, and tasting sand. I installed it on my new rig, (Okay, it's a year old, now, but still chews up everything I throw at it with 0 lag) and it runs like silk.

3. Deus Ex: Invisible War on PC

Basically, Deus Ex 2, this game didn't live up to the merits of the original Deus Ex released in 2000 which PC Gamer magazine declared the best PC game of all time. This one suffers from consolitis. Every scene change involves long load screens and there are no wide open spaces, it's just a relocation from one corridor to the next. But it still has that unintentional cheesiness that makes it a gas to play. I couldn't help but to laugh when I heard a guard say, "For someone trying to hide, you sure are making a lot of noise!" And of course I'm hiding under a table two feet away from him and yet he doesn't see me. And nothing beats putting a proximity mine next to an alarm panel, alerting the guards and watching them run over to the alarm panel only to be planted through the wall behind them. Released in 2003, the game is showing its wrinkles. I'm really just wanting to get through it so I can tackle Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the celebrated prequel.

4. Mr. Bean on DVD

Who would have guessed that Rowan Atkinson, the famous Mr. Bean, acquired two electrical engineering degrees before delving into the world of slapstick comedy. And it doesn't take a brainiac to see this is where the man is in his true depth. This box set compiles his A&E television episodes where I first made his acquaintance back in 1990. Arguably, Atkinson is every bit the comic genius Charlie Chaplin was. He went on to be in a few movies, but this set is clearly his best work. Bring a hernia belt; you'll need it.

5. Sony A300/A350 Field Guide by Tom Bonner

I read this book quite a while back when I first got my Sony A300. Now that I feel I'm an old hand at using the camera I'm reviewing this book again. It's amazing how far I've come. Still there are some little things that come in handy that I probably needed to get reacquainted with. And these truly are little things. I've been a photographer since I was 11 years old and introduced to my first Kodak camera that used 127 spool film by my grandmother. Shutter and aperture mechanics are ingrained into my very being, and it's nice that modern DSLRs still utilize these principles yet allow newbies to simply move from full auto, to programmed auto, to the fully immersive manual settings. The odd perk with reading a book like this is it makes me want to get out there and snap some pictures. In light of this winter from hell we've just had, I needed something like this.

6. PC Gamer magazine

Once again, I'm a minor celebrity of sorts, well, at least I took a picture that will be viewed by 400,000 readers. Last month PCG asked readers to submit pictures of their PCG magazine collections. I've been collecting the magazine since 1996. I have quite the shelf full, and amusingly, on the shelf above is home to many of my old games. PCG posted my picture, and said, "Edward gets bonus points for having Wing Commander in his collection." Ha! They gave me a free game on Steam, too. Ah, life is grand!

7. Priaggio Vespa

Just acquired this less than a month ago, and it's a dream machine. I have respect for Harley Davidson and its plethora of fanatic followers. It's like  the old Jeep sticker you still see in Jeep windshields "It's a Jeep thing. You wouldn't understand." Well, yeah, actually I do because the Vespa has its own rabid fanbase. Just owning this little mechanical gem makes me feel like I'm part of something much bigger, a connection to every other Vespa owner in the world. Like I mentioned on a Facebook post earlier this month, riding this scooter is like riding a piece of art. Like smoking a cigar, it's an act of conspicuous consumption. My daughter says it's total nerdville, and yes, perhaps it is, but so much so that it comes full circle to being the ultimate in coolness. The first Vespa rolled out of the factory in 1946, and it seems my own Vespa exudes something on it from every decade after. Why read a history book when you can straddle it and take it for a trip down the road?

 

Edward's February 2014 Mix

 

 

 

 

 

Snow. Cold. Winter. I’ve had about enough to last me three lifetimes. Seriously, this has been the worst winter I have ever known. People speak of the infamous Blizzard of ’78, but that was just snow. This winter has been snow, lots of it, but I can handle that. Watching Northern Exposure and The Thing movies prove that. Those venues make me want to live in Alaska or the Antarctica, but this cold we’ve been having, sheesh, it reminds me being tumbled about in space, a leak in the space suit, lifeline severed from the mama ship. A scene out of the movie, Gravity. Ah, Summer, to me you are but a distant memory. Oh, how I miss you. There is one consolation with this blasted hellish winter. At least I can stay inside and play games and listen to music.

 

1. Rush on CD 

My personal contra with “Loudness Wars” continues. I’ve been listening to the Canadian super trio, Rush on CD. I first fell in love with Rush back in 1980. I slept beside a small single speaker radio in Portsmouth, Virginia my senior year of high school. I remember a DJ announcing a new song by the group Rush. I’d heard of Rush a year before, but I thought their stuff was just a little too hard. And then this new song, “Spirit of Radio” came on. Alex Lifeson’s high E string shenanigans caused me to hear them in a new light. Was this the same band my skateboarding buddies, Joe Crawley and Chick Myers worshipped back home (in Greencastle, Indiana)? Yes, yes it was! I became an instant fan. I bought Permanent Waves the next day at the mall. And a year later I picked up Moving Pictures and liked it even more. I picked up Exit . . . Stage Left in the Navy Exchange on base in San Diego, CA. And I scored an obvious pirated copy of Signals in Singapore. I was so naïve, It has to be legitimate. I bought it in a record store! And then my last year in the Navy I picked up Grace Under Pressure. (My favorite Rush album.) And in 1985 I bought Power Windows, the album that resonated with me with its MTV videos as much as the tape cassette. And then I hit a wall with Rush. It seems to me that everything after Power Windows just went mediocre. But that’s okay. I rode the Rush roller coaster for five years and six albums. And it’s great to be able to find these wonderful recordings in original CD format with a little online fortitude.  No dynamic range compression. No remastering. These CDs are Rush in the band’s purest form. It doesn’t get better than this.  

2. Path of Exile on PC 

Allow me to prelude this with this: I beat Torchlight. It took me 113 hours and I had to cheat to beat the final boss. Initially, I was seduced by Torchlight’s cartoony WoW look, but I was thrown into confusion by the cosmetic stat based mechanics (a staff you were holding might not actually work as a staff, it merely gave you a buff for using staff type weapons.) I am now playing Path of Exile with my friend, Gene Clifford and my brother in law Mark Nogelmeier, and let me tell you this is an all out blast. PC Gamer wasn’t lying when they said, “We think PoE is more Diablo than Diablo III.” Bold statement, for sure, but it feels dead on. My shadow class rogue is level 22 and working his way up rather quickly with the efficient aid of my two steadfast companions.

3. Azzo Corsa on PC

I have mixed feelings about “Early Access” games. You’re basically paying a premium price to be a participant in a game that’s not even out as a beta yet. This just sounds like a recipe for a disaster. But actually that remains to be seen in this project. If you believe in a developer, why not invest in them this way? It’s been exciting to participate in Azzo Corsa and watch incremental updates pack on like icing on a grand wedding cake. I’ve only had the game a few days, and there’s already been two updates. These updates have changed the game, that’s how good they are. It makes the idiots on Steam who write reviews for this game look like antsy preschool children staring out the daycare windows and going nutso when mommy’s car pulls up. Children, the story isn’t even over yet. Although I’m also looking forward to Project Cars, Azzo Corsa has been on my radar for quite a while. Driving the tiny but sparky Fiat 500 makes me want one in RL. The game is really putting my Logitech G27 wheel/paddle set through its paces. I’ve lamented the fact that the last great NASCAR sim was Papyrus’s NASCAR Racing: 2003 season, and the last great racer beside that was Simbin’s GTR games which are ancient now. Codemasters does a decent job with their “sim-arcadish” Grid games, but the PC sim crowd has needed something like Azzo Corsa for a long time. (Nodding my head and bringing my hands together for a slow clapping.) 

 

4. Need For Speed: Pro Street on PC

I was just talking about serious racing sims, and now I’m interjecting a blurb about a car racing sim that is as far from serious racing sims as chocolate is from vanilla. Well, despite the fact that EA has turned the series into a cash cow like COD, these games are still fun. I’m trying to play them in the order they came out. I am way behind, this is true, but I’m still having fun with them. This one (2007)depicts track racing, something I’m certainly not used to with a NFS game. It’s enjoyable, fulfilling, although quirky (my Logitech G27 works okay with it, but I get the feeling EA pinned compatibility as an afterthought.) I like the ladder system in the game, and being able to purchase upgrades (and better cars) through placing in races. It’s certainly not on par with a Codemasters Grid or Dirt title, but it should hold my attention until I beat the game. 

 

5. Mass Effect 2 on PC

I got hot and heavy into this a year ago. It was a must play since I enjoyed the original Mass Effect so much back in 2009. The chance to revisit the Normandy spaceship and meet up with my old crew and set about on some amazing side quests to help them (and ingratiate them to me) was why I could see why the Editor in Chief of PC Gamer, Mr. Logan Decker said the Mass Effect series was the game series he would recount on his deathbed. But then I got weary, and the game seemed to last forever. I decided to tackle it again a few weeks ago. To my surprise I progressed quickly. I even cultivated an amorous love affair with the alien, Tali. My heart skipped beats as she shed her helmet for me. My heart palpitated again as I got to the end of the game. This was the stuff of epic Hollywood features. This was a grand Star Trek and Star Wars ending rolled into one. My friends gripe because I’m reluctant to join them in multiplayer games. Never have I felt so much a part of something bigger in which little me makes such a huge difference in the outcome, and never have I felt as if I were really going places from the comfortable seat of my computer chair than playing single player games like this. Now you know. Single player is where it’s at. I got to save the universe single handed in a total time of 40 hours.

 

6. Sid Meier's Railroads! on PC

 

Railroad Tycoon way back in 1990 was the third computer game I remember buying. It also hatched an Edward Burton original word: dawn game. The meaning is simply this, no matter what time you start the game it's going to be dawn when you look out the window when you finish playing it. The game has certainly gone through its iterations over the years, and unfortunately, it somewhat dumbed down in 2006's RailRoads! but it's still hellaciously fun, so what if it's more reminiscent of a child's electric train than the schematically oriented stock/economy simulators of previous games in the series. I've finished the game all the way through twice, and now I'm attempting my third time. It's unfortunate that Firaxis Games who made it decided to smack it to users of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The game crashes a lot, and they refuse to do anything about it. They released the game AFTER Windows Vista was released yet refused to support Vista. This, my friends, is the stuff class action law suits are made of. And it definitely makes Firaxis a fail dog in my book. Still the game exudes a certain charm that I simply can't refuse.

 

 

Edward's January 2014 Mix

Another year is upon us. And another year swirls down the whirlpool into time past. Actually 2013 was a good year for me. I finished 18 games and set a new record for games finished. I've come a long way in my personal history of gaming. In 1990 when I first started gaming I remember buying one game and tenaciously playing it night and day until I finished it. Now I buy games on Steam with reckless abandon, having no idea when I'll get around to playing them. I still have games from a Steam summer sale two years ago I've not played. Yet, I'm setting records for finishing games in a given year. This, my friends, is the dictionary definition of the word paradox. It has been an interesting month though, nothing new really. I've just been concentrating on finishing some games so I can clear them out of my inventory and install new ones. I did make one drastic exception, however, with a long happy trip down memory lane, and one, not so drastic exception, just a return to an old friend.

1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2  on PC

I blazed through the single player portion of this game back in 2010 when it came out on autopilot, like Denzel Washington in the movie, Flight flying the passenger liner, high on tequila, his eyes covered by Ray Ban Aviators and sheets of paper as his 737 careered along at 30,000 feet. It was a fun little romp, very arcadish actiony, a direct ripoff of the enormously anemic Call of Duty campaigns. But when I started playing online, that was when this game came alive for me. The enjoyment I got from the sniper maps actually exceeded the ebullience that engulfed me when I played Battlefield 2, one of my all time favorite games. And now, in twenty degree Indiana weather where everybody is coughing and walking around white skinned, gloomy and ghostly, I can jump into the Laguna Presa map with my friend Dave Tidwell, and his son and nephew, whilst talking in TeamSpeak, being surrounded by leafy green tropical plants, lemon yellow sunshine, ambient exotic birds and it's oddly like going home. I get steamrolled in BF3, and I've not jumped onto the BF4 bandwagon yet, BF2, which will always own my heart is ancient history, but in BFBC2, I've found a sense of place.

2. Hammock Maybe They Will Sing for US Tomorrow on CD

I've posted this here in posts past, but I believe music is the one common denominator we'll share with our ethereal bodies in the sweet hereafter. We may not eat, we may not see or smell, but we will listen to music. And it will be as beautiful of an experience as dreaming about music I've never actually heard before in my waking life, awakening with filled eyes and a mouth agape trying to hold onto that fading tune, digging and clawing to determine where in the world I've heard that song before. And then it disappears into the canyons of my subconscious, gone forever. Well, this album is very close to that experience, with the beautiful exception that it's a tangible thing I can hold and flip over, all shiny and rainbow brilliant like a giant dime. Sliding it into the CD tray is like revisiting that musical dream.I heard a cut of this on Pandora and instantly went to Amazon and picked it up. When I popped it into my car's CD player and the first unearthly great instrumental song came to life I was teleported to another world. And I go there each time I listen to this CD. If you want a taste of what I'm talking about visit Youtube and look up the titular, "Maybe They Will Sing for US Tomorrow." Imagine an old man, snow white hair, denim jacket and worn cowboy boots. He's walked long desert highways, rainy evergreen  roadways, and lonely country roads surrounded by hay fields. He's walked these distances to give you something. And without saying a word he proffers his hand and drops it into the palm of your hand. You glance down at this thing that hurts your heart with its beauty and changes your life forever. You're at a loss for words, yet you look up anyway and your mouth moves. The man turns his back to you, and walks back the way he came. There's a feeling of kindness and sacrifice that surrounds this odd stranger like an aura, and you're suddenly filled with the ultimate joy of living on this earth as a human being. This song is the sound of that.

3. Northern Exposure Season 3 on DVD

 I gave up on network television many years ago. I simply refuse to watch commercials. Of course, you all already know this about me. I consider it America's great dumbing down, the fact that we sit there and tolerate something as asenine as television commercials. So, when this series aired back in the early 90's it quickly zoomed in under my radar. But now that I'm watching them on DVD I realize I missed out on something great. Well, not entirely, I haven't missed out, I'm just late to the show. As much as I hate Indiana winters, this show makes me want to embrace the cold. It makes me want to grow my beard and buy a snowmobile. I want to ride along as a passenger on the Iditarod. I really want to move to Cicely, Alaska and wake up to Chris in the morning on the radio, and make business deals with Maurice, and drink a beer at Holling's place and be served greasy French Fries by his beautiful, airy wife. I suppose the great sadness about this wonderful series is knowing that there's an end to it. 

4. North by Northwest on DVD

Alfred Hitchcock supposedly once said, "The more interesting the villain, the more interesting the movie." I watched this movie years ago and James Mason became very intriguing to me. And then I watched him as Captain Nemo in Disney's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and he became my favorite actor. He had little onscreen time in this Hitchcock vehicle. Most of the limelight focused on Cary Grant, who, I think was okay, but the major star of this movie, which, in typical Alfie fashion is one man pitted alone against hostile elements, is the plot of the film. If your significant other isn't acquainted with Alfred Hitchcock, this is the movie that will have him or her biting their nails and edging forward on the sofa. (Psycho, perhaps the scariest movie ever made, is another grand choice.) Alfred Hitchcock's genius emanates like lens flair in this Hollywood feature extravaganza. His knack for characters with fatal flaws and odd but effective camera angles, his plot devices in which the bad guys more often than not get their comeuppance. It's all here. 

5. Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen Ambrose

We all know and love Spielberg's epic, Saving Private Ryan. This book details what happens the next day. I have more than a passing familiarity with such gems as Brothers In Arms, Combat Mission, EA's venerable Medal of Honor series and all of the other wonderful WWII games I've played. This book, however, is like twirling the mouse wheel though and zooming into a freckle's eye view of the men who were there and getting their stories. Did you know the Germans loved American Jeeps? Despite that they thought the tiny cars were "gas guzzlers," the Germans captured every one they could and used them. Erwin Rommel very much admired the American soldiers and called them quick studies. An American commander who faced Germany's Fallschirmjager, the famous German paratroopers claimed, "Those Germans are the best soldiers I ever saw. They're smart and they don't know what the word "fear" means. They come in and they keep coming until they get the job done, or you kill 'em." If you like playing WWII computer games and watching WWII movies, you won't be disappointed with this book.

6. F1 2012 on PC

This was the first racing game I installed when I got my new system. The F1 car that sits there on a showroom floor like a beautifully painted bullet looks like you could simply reach out and run your fingers across its sleek glossy surface. Even the black rubber wheels begged to be felt and patted. And taking a car out on the track is a feeling of pure bliss. The cars truly feel like bodily extensions. I accrued almost 75 hours into this game and then I encountered something that caused me to uninstall the game and write a letter to Codemasters (the game's distributor.) The game's stringent penalty system makes it unplayable. There was nothing so frustrating as getting trapped in a corner with a gaggle of other cars, boxed in, and then getting a blue penalty flag signifying that you acquired a penalty pit lane lap for "illegal blocking." And then to come out that pit lane which has added another ten seconds to your lap time, and having a car driven by the AI bump you, lose its front wing, and then you're awarded another penalty lap for "unsportsmanlike behavior." I browsed the forums, and as my suspicions became validated I realized this game was a waste of time. Codemasters admitted the AI penalty system was a broken game mechanic, and they claimed to have fixed it in F1 2013. Why couldn't they have patched F1 2012 with this fix? There is no excuse for not fixing a game that has a flaw like this. 

7. Arcade Fire Reflektor on CD

This unusual Canadian group caught my ear on Pandora. I listened to this album in its entirety on Spotify and soon picked it up from Amazon. Okay, brace yourself because this is going to sound weird, but it's the best way I know to describe it. Imagine, if you will, a measuring cup filled halfway with KC and the Sunshine Band, and then 1/4 filled with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and the Lonely Heart's Club album, and then the final 1/4 filled with a night sky dotted with tiny ice chip stars, this pretty much describes this band to me. The band sounds like nothing I've heard before, but then it sounds like everything I've ever listened to in a giant mixing bowl. This, from Wikipedia.org,
"The band plays guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin, and hurdy-gurdy, and take most of these instruments on tour; the multi-instrumentalist band members switch duties throughout shows."
If you have a good sound system and you want to take your ears to an aural Disneyland, treat them to this. For a good example, go to Youtube and look up "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" and step onto a musical merry go round. 

8. Company of Heroes on PC

Remember the long happy trip down memory lane I mentioned in the introduction of this Mix? Well, this is what I was referring to. Company of Heroes is without exception, the best real time strategy game I have ever played. Nothing I've played since has even come close. I'm not alone in this mindset. Computer Games Magazine and PC Gamer Magazine both awarded it their "Game of the Year" for 2006. (It came in 2nd place in Computer Gaming Word where Oblivion took top honors.) The game is muddy looking, ugly, and stark. And this art style works beautifully. I often lose games because I get overwhelmed because instead of pulling back and utilizing the big picture, I spend too much time zoomed in to check out a pack of cigarettes in a soldier's pocket or the rust on his MP40. The details aren't simply visual either. The game won numerous awards for its sound design. There is nothing so menacing as the sound of a German King Tiger Tank squeaking along, its treads sounding metally and mechanical as the behemoth is obscured from view because of the fog of war element in the game. I have played my fair share of online games of Company of Heroes, and I usually got steamrolled. Yet I still had a blast. I can't say this about too many other games. Relic's servers aren't even ghost towns anymore, they are things of memory, but praise be to Steam for taking over hosting duties, this game continues to live. I rebought the games over Steam's Winter sale; I couldn't pass up the opportunity to score all three games for ten bucks. And I thought I'd play the single player game all over again. Pick this game up so we can play. It's as much fun to clobber each other as it is to co-op with a buddy and take on the AI. This is a game that will always live on my hard drive.

9. Klipsch S4 Image in-ear monitors

A month ago I was an ignorant cuss as far as great sound goes. Well, listening to great sound, anyway. And then I became educated. I found a pair of these great monitors (a month ago I would have called them "ear buds," sheesh.) Ear buds are the cheap foamy ear devices that sit in the bowl of your ears. They're never bassy, and they are affected by the acoustics of the architecture of your ear shape. In-ear monitors, on the other hand look like slimmed earplugs, mini torpedoes that stick directly into your ear nestled up not far from your ear drums. Sound doesn't get any more purer than this. I stumbled across these in an audiophile magazine, and when Men's Health magazine deemed them the best in line monitors money could buy I was immediately intrigued. And then I found them on Amazon for $30 (on sale from $90.) The instant I put them in and gave them a listen might very well be, that at fifty-one years old, the moment I was born, from a musical standpoint, anyway. I now look forward to going to the doctor or the dentist. Need an oil change or a tune up? I'm there! There isn't a waiting room that doesn't feel like magnetized Velcro to me now.

 

2013: A Year in the Life of a PC Gamer

2013: A Year in the Life of a PC Gamer

 

 

      The beginning of 2013 was an impending explosion trapped in a bottleneck. I had been gaming on a PC I bought in 2009, and everything I put on it was starting to resemble a slide show at an old folks' home. If everyday is New Year's Day in the world of computerdom, then my old E7200 processor equipped Antech 300 was something that emerged from the Jurassic era. I spent about everyday for weeks doing virtual builds of new PCs on DigitalStorm, Cyberpower and IBuyPower sites. I researched like a medical scientist attempting to discover a cure for cancer. And then I stumbled upon a Youtube video that showcased a PC building firm called Ironside Computers. I hit them with a real life game of Twenty Questions on their site, and they were quick and efficient in answering every one of them. They even talked me out of buying extra items that were unnecessary in a build I had been constructing on their site. They sold me. And then they sold me a PC.

 

      I got the PC in March, and the impending explosion burst through the bottleneck. The energy could have soared a Saturn V rocket to the next galaxy. I ended up playing over 40 games in 2013, and I finished a record setting 18 games. Although, I noticed indie games stealing more and more of the forefront in 2013 I managed to play a variety of games.

      I gave my system a little bit of a workout with Battlefield 3 and SimCity (who's debacle launch had to be one of the darkest sour points of the year.) I also (for once) played a game mere months after it had released, Bioshock: Inifinite. This is probably one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. This is a game you call your friends, family and neighbors over to say, "Hey, look at this, look what my computer can do."

 

      Despite what I said earlier about indie games rearing their ugly and not so ugly heads to the forefront, I got my hooks into some of them as well. Zeno Clash was a struggle, but I finally beat it. It will probably go down in history as one of the greatest punching simulators ever made. I tackled Bastion which turned into another struggle, however, the ending made it all worth it. The strange novelty of having a narrator describing your every move in real time makes this a game experience everybody should partake in. And I have to admit, the Xbox controller mechanics and the body English maneuvers to get my character to jump over to the next ledge, tree, mushroom, whatever, all vanished by the wayside as I got enmeshed in the story itself. I played through Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the main attraction being its claim to be one hella scary game, and the fact that none of my friends had finished it because it was too scary. I played it, and I beat it. Boo-yah! It was fun, but there were some puzzles that were extremely difficult and quickly pulled me from the suspension of disbelief. Yes, the game was in fact quite scary, not the monster in the closet jumping out at you kind of scary, but more like a sense of dread kind of creepiness when you see movement in the shadows.

 

     Being many years removed from my callow teen aged years I often find nostalgia in the strangest of things. My own PC was the portal to my own gaming nostalgia in 2013. (Try to get nostalgic with those wonderful old Metal Gear games with your new next generation console. Not going to happen.) I played through 2004's lauded Doom 3 again after all of these years. The game still looks good. I thought it repetitive and clichéd, but it was a fun romp. I can see why it was such da bomb when it came out, though I always thought Far Cry was the much better game at the time. I also reinstalled Tron 2.0 and finished it this time. That should renew my geek cred for at least another whole year. I also reinstalled Mirror's Edge and finished it this time. This game had jaw dropping visuals when I first played it back in 2009. That hasn't changed. When Splinter Cell came out all of the gaming periodicals talked about its wonderful use of lighting. I think Mirror's Edge had it beat in that department. I was greatly frustrated right before the ending when I first played it. I got through it this time, and I'm honored to have completed it. The idea that there will be a Mirror's Edge 2 is music to my ears. I also played through Sid Meier's Rails! a second time. That game was certainly no Railroad Tycoon, but it still exuded a certain charm that made it irresistible. I never could get it to work for very long in Windows Vista, but it seemed to warm right up to my Windows 7 64 bit.

 

     I dabbled in Civilization V throughout the year. It's a game that really does scare me. It frightens me how life suddenly fast forwards when I play Civ 5. I can glance at the clock, and in no time two hours have flown by. No matter what time I start playing it, it's always dawn when I finish it. I don't even boot it up during the work week. It's just way too tempting. "Argh! Just . . one . . more . .turn!"

 

     Simulations is truly what drew me to PC gaming way back in 1989. I got to revisit some of that love in 2013 with a few select sims. I reinstalled Rise of Flight which ran like a choppy 56K slide show on my old Intel E7200. It was amazing to be able to run the game at max settings on my new rig. But it wasn't until I picked up Saitek's outstanding X52 Flight Control System that Rise of Flight really took on a new life for me. The game is still no pushover. You'll be lucky to obtain Ace in a simulated career, but having a powerful gaming rig and a flight stick and throttle stick to match definitely can put the odds in your favor. Speaking of hardware, I also picked up a Logitech G27 Wheel/Paddle set in 2013, and I bought Euro Truck Simulator 2 at a Steam sale to put the peripheral through its paces. Man, oh man, oh man, oh man. This game and wheel\paddle set is a marriage. The game was made for the Logitech system, or is it more like the Logitech system was made for this game. I don't know, I just know when I've got my headphones on listening to that wheeze of the turbo diesel emanating from my truck's twin stacks, and I've got European Trance on the radio, and I see hayfields and quaint pastoral houses in the distance I just feel like I've come home. That, my friends, is the magic of PC gaming.

 

     I don't expect 2014 to be as bold of a year in my gaming indulgences. First, there won't be anything as dramatic as upgrading to another rig. Secondly, I have numerous longer games lined up to play. I don't anticipate getting anywhere near 18 games finished. The Witcher 2 and Dragon Age 2 are both on my plate. I take twice as long as you do playing an RPG, I'm sure of it. But the Steam Winter Sale just ended, and as usual, it was an embarrassment of riches for me. I spent way too much on games that I have no idea when I'll get around to playing. But hey, this is the dawn of a brand new year sprawled out before us. I guess it's time to get cracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Edward's December 2013 Mix

It's been a very busy multimedia month for me. Using my age old excuse that it's all because of the weather, I managed to stay inside for most of the month and do all kinds of nifty indoor things, mostly watching movies and playing games. It looks like I'm going to set a new record as far as finished games this year. I've managed to play over forty different games and finish playing seventeen of them. The first game was reviewed in my trusty PC Gamer magazine that actually suggests a better video card than what I currently use, and to think a few months ago I was bragging about how futureproof I was. Confound it! (The game, by the way, is Battlefield 4.) I  have a GTX 670, and PCG is suggesting a GTX 680 to draw out the full effects of the game. This is currently a $500 video card, more than the retail cost of a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One. This, another testament to how much of a powerhouse a top end PC is over the "next gen" consoles. I know, I know, I should keep my mouth shut, PC gaming is dead after all. I guess the creators of The Elder Scrolls Online and Everquest Next didn't get the memo. Oh, and someone should tell Nvidia, who is about to release a superhumongous new technology: The G-Synch. This technology will move LCDs truly into new generation territory with the ability of your video card to adjust the refresh rate of your LCD as it sees fit. We've been using old CRT technology for years, and we're about to step into a bold new era with this astounding technological shift.

1.  Torchlight on PC

This little sleeper of a game swept the critics off of their collective feet when it came out in 2009. Garnering a respectable 83 on Metacritic this is the game that PC Gamer said was "more Diablo III than Diablo III." I've got about 50 hours into it which puts me at about the halfway mark. I do like the cartoony art style, but the game is getting rather long in the tooth. I've hit level 20 and I've got some elite armor, (though no complete sets yet.) Still, the game fills my strange need to just kill a thousand things with a thousand million mouseclicks. I probably won't be in a hurry to play Torchlight II anytime, soon. I think this game will satiate my appetite for a long time to come.

2. Bioshock: Infinite on PC

I finally beat it. This was Irrational's/2K's epic magnum opus (for this year anyway.) I struggled a little bit during the last boss fight, but it wasn't quite a killjoy. I had to dumb the game down from Hard to Easy, but I got it. And in some odd way this might have been my personal homage to the masses who wanted to bypass the combat elements and continue through the storyline, yes, it was that good. Although, I felt the ending was a bit contrived. Still, Ken Levine, tells a great tale here. The game deals with the heavy subjects of anti-Christianity and anti-patriotism, but it pulls it off as poignantly as it can. (Is that really possible?) This is the first game in ages that I actually sat there stunned at the end and watched awestruck as the credits rolled by for ten minutes. (And got to see the little mini quick time event bonus after the credits.) This is an amazing game that not only affirms my love for the Bioshock series, in which the environments are as much a character as the NPCs you interact with, but also gives me bragging rights as to how and why I love PC games with all of my heart and lay valid claim to the fact there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

3. Fiddler On The Roof on DVD

When I was 9 years old I accompanied my mother and my aunt to go see Doctor Zhivago at the theater in downtown Urbana, Illinois. The movie was over my head at the time, but one thing stuck with me from that movie: I think Russians must be the saddest people on the planet. I'll never forget the blue snow scenes and the furry Russian hats, and I'll never forget the sad and confused look on Zhivago's face when he was a boy attending his mother's graveside service. I watched Fiddler on the Roof for the first time this month, which reminded me of the sadness in Doctor Zhivago. This movie, which focuses on a poor Jewish farmer attempting to cling to the old ways of tradition, being uprooted because of his religious beliefs. He has three daughters who have become young women, and like the old traditions he has to let go, so he must let his daughters go to their respective new husbands. This 1971 film was based on a Broadway play. Normally I eschew such things. B-O-R-I-N-G! But my parents loved this movie and told me I'd enjoy it. The parents were right (for once.) I won't watch it again, but this is an important movie. As a fan of good movies, I'm glad I watched it.

4. Paths of Glory on DVD

Stanley Kubrick made this movie when he was only twenty eight. And Kirk Douglas fell in love with the script when he read it. He was quoted as saying, "Stanley, I don't think this movie will make a dime, but we HAVE to make it." Douglas was correct. The movie didn't turn a profit, but this is one of the greatest anti war movies ever made, right up there with All Quiet on the Western Front. The movie concerns Frenchman Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) who must defend three soldiers in a World War One courtroom who were picked at random to represent a whole brigade of men accused of cowardice after they fail to capture a hill held by German infantry. This is a movie that impacted me on a deeper level, and made me tense with frustration at the outcome.

5.  The Music on CD 

Good luck Googling "The Music" and finding out anything about this amazing band out of Leeds, England. I'll save you the legwork, instead simply go to www.themusicuk.com and there within you'll discover a knock out band that blends the sounds of U2 with Led Zeppelin. Some compare the lead singer, Robert Harvey, to a twenty one year old Robert Plant. I'm not seeing it, but there's no need to. This guy can croon all on his own. Check out "Into the Night" on Youtube and prepare to be blown away. I've been wearing out my replay button on my car stereo to this CD lately. Favorite tracks are "Into the Night," and "Guide."

6. Who I Was Supposed to Be by Susan Perabo

Back in 2007 a friend loaned me a collection of short stories by southern American writers. One write stood out for me, and that was Susan Perabo. I recently found this book, and I'm about halfway through it. The beautiful thing about writing is the ability to play God. You can shape your own world, you can create your own people, and then jump into their skin and tell your stories through their eyes. Susan Perabo does this with amazing ability.  In the short story, "Counting the Ways" she is a young man in a young marriage, and she nails the experience of being a man so vividly.  She's a writer who makes me strangely envious, in that gnawing little way where I know as long as I live I'll never match her abilities.

7. Test Drive Unlimited 2 on PC

I researched extensively on the forums before I picked this game up. The game's developer's Eden Games are now defunct. And the game's publisher, Atari, has nothing to do with it anymore. Okay, that's not entirely true. If you want to buy any of the DLC they are there for you, but try to get some good ol' bona fide technical support. TDU2 is the game they set in the wicker basket and left on somebody's doorstep. Still, there are people playing online. And with my Logitech G27 wheel/paddle set, this car driving simulation is a blast. There are 2,000 miles of roads in Ibiza and Hawaii in this sim. And I plan on hitting them all.

8. A Scanner Darkly on DVD

Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, this animated movie became for me, one of my famous "three day movies," a designation created by my sister and I calling attention to movies that got into our heads and got us to thinking about them for three days straight.  The movie is animated, but contains an all star cast, and oddly, the cartoon characters look exactly like their real life counterparts.  It's as if someone filmed a video of the actors, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Wynona Ryder and Keanu Reeves and then used a weird caricature filter in Photoshop on them.  I've read my share of Philip K. Dick books and found them a bit on the dry side. The movie BladeRunner was a far better movie than Dick's original novel it was based on. I'm really interested in reading the book this movie was based on to see how they compare. I'm not a big fan of animation, but the animation style and the film's great use of lighting effects has endeared this movie to me. It now holds a permanent place on my shelf.

9. Team Fortress 2 on PC

I'm typically not a fan of cartoon games (Torchlight being an exception).  I suck at online first person shooters, and more importantly why would I jump onboard a game so late that's been out since 2007? I dabbled in TF2 in the past, but only stuck around to take in the scenery. Just not my thing. But this month something happened. Now I can't get enough. This is a grand game. Every class is a good class. People are halfway respectful toward each other. There isn't the verbal abuse you find in Dota and LOL games. And I haven't laughed out loud in a game in a long time.  I mentioned the scenery, well, the art style exudes all sorts of charm. It's as if Norman Rockwell and the Hanna-Barbera team had an orgy and produced a lovechild. Maybe, the best perk of all about this game, however, is that my skills are seemingly improving with each game. For a guy like me who is reaching the age where I can watch my reflexes evaporate like dew on a suddenly scorching  mid morning this is a very good thing.