(Very) Late to the Party - The iPad 2

Can a self-professed Apple hater learn to love the iPad? Read on for an honest review of the 2nd generation iPad.


I must confess, I absolutely dislike Apple. This dislike was so prevalent that I refused to adopt the iPad when everyone was raving about it. I complained that iTunes is too cumbersome and awful, and that the item was overpriced and a waste of time. I ignored everything Apple and went all in with Android products. That changed when I started my first teaching job.

Enter August, the air is incredibly warm, I'm wearing long sleeve shirts because I'm trying to look professional while preparing my classroom for the first time, and then I hear my wife brag to the principal that I am a tech genius.
"Oh really?" Says the principal. "What do you think we can do with an iPad at this school?"

Oh crap, I have been put on the spot and must give my reasoning for why I won't touch the danged thing. "I just don't like the company, and it is a pain to get their products to work decently with a Windows-based PC." I was speaking from experience, I hated tech calls that dealt with getting these two rivals to work together, and so I shunned Apple completely. Suddenly, the principal smiles and says, "Well figure it out anyway," and hands me a new iPad 2.

I felt like I was a vampire, having to hold a cross that is burning my hands. But when you are a new teacher, and someone has bragged about your tech prowess, you just can't say no to your boss. So I took the thing home with me, and began to play with it.

To be honest, as a PC and Android guy, this thing was far from intuitive, and much time was spent online learning how to use the device properly. That was annoying, but in retrospect I believe that was because I am not used to running this kind of OS. After a few hours, I began to explore and enjoy the tablet from house Apple.

The screen is large and bright, and the touch screen is so smooth and responsive, honestly it is so much better than any Android phone I had used before. Then I experienced the iPad's ultimate claim to fame, the App Store.
As a teacher and gamer, I found hundreds of apps that demanded my time and money. So much more compared to the fairly large Android market! Then I found out something even better; I can totally skip iTunes completely! The program that is the bane of all my perceived problems with Apple could be ignored, I can just transfer files wirelessly or leave it all in the cloud. Without a need for a tether to my computer to transfer items, I could truly enjoy what Apple has to offer hardware-wise.

Will I go completely Apple and forgo all other products? I wouldn't bet on it. I still love the openness and versatility that Android offers, and my computer will remain my main office item, but when it comes to the amount of education apps offered on the iPad, I think I'll use this product indefinitely.

Or until the Android tablet app market matches the prowess of the iPad app market.

Time for a Change - Why it is Imperative that Teachers Wholly Embrace Technology

I feel I must start by introducing myself. I am a high school teacher in Waskom, TX. I teach English II, English III, and World History. Oh, did I mention I am at a Title I school? What does that mean? In the easiest terms; the majority of students live in a low, or poor, socioeconomic area. For the majority, they may know what a computer is, and how to use it, they just don't have decent access to one at home.

As tech-savvy people who read this website, you know how terrible it is to not have a computer at home, or any Internet access. Also, one wouldn't expect many of these students to know how to utilize new technologies like an iPad or Android tablet. That is why we need to focus on putting new technology in the classroom.

Let's face it, technology is now part of the fabric of our everyday life now. If we want our students to succeed in the future, they need to be proficient with all aspects of technology. It not only requires money to fund these tech items, but a willing teacher that will introduce it within the classroom.

For example, there is a new teaching idea that wholly embraces new technology. Instead of giving a lecture or oral lesson at school, you record it and have the student watch at home. Instead of requiring the student to do homework after spending all day listening to a lecture, they come into class the next day (after watching the lesson at home) and do said 'homework' with the teacher in class. This is called 'flipping the classroom,' and is a great way to not only keep student interest in the classroom, but provide them training with new technology to prepare them for the world outside of high school. The teacher utilizes technology to record a lesson (Live Paper for the iPad is a great example of doing said recording) and wirelessly transfer the video/lesson to the students' tablets, where they then use to watch the lesson at home while doing activities that enhances their training with a tablet device.

It's true, this will take money. It will take great effort to gain this funding for schools (ours has applied for grants to do this) but it will take an even greater effort from teachers. We must embrace technology, otherwise we will have students that fall way behind other countries, and who won't be prepared for the technological proficiency needed in the 'real world.' I truly believe this can be accomplished, with a little push by teachers and those interested in improving our country's education.

The Amazing Spider-Dud

  Let’s start with a bit of a primer, shall we? Cut back a little under eleven years ago when the first Spider-man movie came out. It was phenomenal, and made me realize that current movie technology can finally bring some of my favorite superheroes to life! Now, it wasn’t perfect by any means. The middle was a little slow, and the Green (Power Ranger) Goblin was a bit, well, lacking. Regardless, the performances from almost all of the actors were spot on and I was excited for the next installment.

                Spider-man 2 was one of those rare sequels that I feel was better than the first movie. Great villain, great action, great emotion; to me it was a flawless movie. Cut to two years later and we received a sequel that wasn’t that great (for details I shall not get into on this blog post). After that movie, while it was very successful, Sony/Columbia Pictures decided to start anew.

                So the big question; is The Amazing Spider-Man bad? Well, no, not at all. Taken on its own, it is a perfectly suitable origin story that fleshes out a few things while skipping over other aspects. In fact, this time around I think they found an actor who can really play Peter Parker. Not only that, the movie’s take on Gwen Stacey is phenomenal. Whereas the original movie didn’t have the budget to get too many notable stars, this one spared no expense and that talent paid off within the movie.

                The problem is two-fold; how do you retell an origin story most of the audience has already seen, and how do you make that said story interesting. Unfortunately, I believe this movie failed on both aspects. It is by no means horrible, and you should definitely see it to form your own opinion. But without being too spoiler-ific, I will try and convey why I thought it wasn’t as great or, ahem, amazing as it should be.

                The Word “Reboot”

                No no, not the TV show of the same name, but the definition of the word. “To start from scratch, with the expectation of seeing different results.” That was the basis for this movie. To tell the origin story, but try and bring different facets to life. This happened by changing up the love interest, Gwen over Mary Jane, focusing on Dr. Curt Connors, and keeping Peter firmly in high school.  With those three key ideas, the hope was that the story would feel fresh and different enough from the previous movie.

                All three ideas are great, and should have helped create a story that felt similar but new at the same time. Unfortunately, the story has decided to follow to close to the same beats the first movie used. Granted, we always knew *and seriously, if you’ve never seen the first movie or read comics, major spoil alert* Uncle Ben was going to die. We always knew that would be the impetus for Peter’s full on transformation to a superhero. But did we have to have a villain that followed in the footsteps of Willem Dafoe’s crazy portrayal of Norman Osborn? (Watch the movie, and compare the two characters’ inner monologues, they are waaaaay too similar to be coincidence.) Did we seriously have to spend well over an hour to see Spidey in costume? (A nod to the “darker” tone of Batman Begins.) I feel like the main problem was the writers/producers took all of these great ideas from previous superhero movies (and yes, Batman Begins/The Dark Knight greatly influenced this movie, which is a shame) and meshed them into a high school Spider-man story. It just feels, for lack of a better term, silly. The over-use of emotion and random outbursts by Peter felt awkward. And yes, I know the character is an awkward nerd, but this didn’t feel natural. It almost felt like Andrew Garfield wanted to do a different take on Peter, and the director/writers/producer/powers-that-be said, “No! It must feel dark and moody like those Batman movies that sold so well!”

               This is a story that is supposed to be a reboot on the origin, but we have executives and etcetera that were too afraid to actually do it. Instead, we have a flawed movie that turns the melodrama up to eleventy-billion and thinks that is the same as the dark and gritty tale the Batman stories have done, expecting people to flock to it in droves. I truly think that if The Avengers came out way before they wrote/filmed this movie, that it would have actually been much better. They would have seen that light-heartedness mixed with the right amount of emotion would have made a much better Spider-man than using this, which I feel is more “emo” than Tobey’s weird transformation in Spider-man 3.

                We have a movie that is too dark for its own good.

                The Boring Effect

                Now, I took a young six year old boy to this movie, thinking it would be something great for both of us to enjoy. Unfortunately, for the first half of the movie, Amazing Spider-Man was boring! Yes, I kid you not. For a good hour and fifteen minutes (and you bet your butt I kept count), Spider-Man was nowhere to be found! We had a few snippets here and there of emo-Peter learning to use his powers (via something so silly and non-Peter that it just made me laugh), but nothing real until well after half of the movie was over. That was a big miss-step. The audience already understood that Peter was going to be Spider-Man, they should have dived right into that aspect instead of waiting so long to dawn the costume. Again, it feels akin to Batman Begins, and that the powers-that-be thought that drawing out the origin = movie gold.

                When he finally started going out as Spidey, we are given just a few scenes that help stylize what he does. I will delve into this more later, but they are too far from each other to keep a six year old entertained. While I enjoy the dramatic aspects (and let’s be honest here, Spider-Man was always about melodrama, even in the comics), you have to find the right balance between that and action to keep everyone interested in the story! This movie failed to do so.

                So, we have a movie that was too afraid to stray from the original story, with a villain and similar story beats that made it seem more like a flimsy remake than a reboot. We had a movie that was incredibly boring to boot. Why is it that I think it isn’t that bad? Well let me take the time to go into that as well.

                The Actors

                Every single actor in this movie, from main supporting character Gwen Stacey to the lowest plot-mover Flash Thompson were phenomenal. For once, the characters truly looked like their comic-book counterparts. Not only that, all of them are talented actors that play their roles perfectly. This is surprising given the sub-par script. I think it was a great move to keep Peter in high school, and incredibly great to use Gwen as his first love (like it was in the comics). In fact, I’m more excited to see more of the supporting and cursory characters than Peter’s story. Who would have thought that I’d leave the movie theater going, “Wow, I sure wish they did more with Flash Thompson.”

                Straying From The Original

                When the movie did do something different than the original, the story became incredibly interesting. Focusing more on Peter’s father made for a great mystery (that was left very under-cooked). A role model in Captain Stacey made for what could have been compelling drama (again, under-cooked). The mechanical web-shooters (which they kinda straddled the line between Peter creating them and not) were a great idea. Even the costume was different, yet familiar in a way that made his movements incredibly interesting.

                The Special Effects & Other Additions

                Goombah-Lizard not withstanding (Hah! A reference to that Super Mario Bros. movie, how original!) the special effects really stood out. For once, we had an INCREDIBLY acrobatic Spider-Man, which was, well, amazing! We had a wise-cracking Spidey! Granted, some of his jokes fell flat, but this Spidey was still funnier than the previous version (where Sam Raimi, the director, chose to use sight-gags for most of its humor). The fight scenes were spectacularly choreographed, and the web-slinging was also fun to watch. In fact, I wish they would have done more of that first person-view for those scenes. The ties to New York City felt great, and didn’t come as a hoaky surprise like it did in the original (i.e. you had characters that truly supported Spider-Man, and for good reason). In fact, they chose the right director in Marc Webb to do these human aspects. He truly understood how to make you care about everyone in the movie.

In conclusion, this movie wasn’t absolute dreck. It had its moments, but overall it felt like a miss-step. They were too afraid to really change things, and instead mixed-and-matched from different superhero movies in the hope that they’d make a great one. If I were to sum up The Amazing Spider-Man in one sentence it would be this; Disappointing, but it had its moments and I saw the potential for this new series to flourish.

State of the (Animation) Union

Right now there are four superhero animated series out there. Interestingly enough, they are evenly split between two DC-based series and two Marvel-based series. Well, that's a lot to get through in one blog post, so let's get to it.

Young Justice - Well, the first season just finished last Saturday, with season two immediately starting seven days later. For DC fans this is a very good show. Within twenty-six episodes, the first season established characters such as Superboy (a clone of Superman), Aqualad, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis, and of course Robin (Dick Grayson). The show isn't shy on showing off it's knowledge of DC superheroes, having dozens appear throughout the season. Unfortunately, too much of something can be bad and this show proves it. As the season goes on, not including the character-centric episodes, the main characters get brushed aside to show off all of these other heroes. It gets to the point that the emotions and actions of the teen heroes are glossed over to get to the main plot of The Light.
Regardless, the series is highly entertaining, and the action is superb. When it hits that sweet spot of action and character interaction, you'll wish it would never end. Hopefully, the showrunners have learned how to hit that sweet spot often so that this show becomes the hit it deserves to be.

Green Lantern - The Animated Series - It started off inauspiciously enough. Standard Hal Jordan character doing his thing on Earth. It quickly changes pace, becoming a space epic where Hal and his partner Kilowog are out patrolling the far reaches of space against the evil Red Lanterns. With only eight episodes released so far, it is hard to gauge how good this show will be. Like Young Justice, it has potential, especially since it is being helmed by Bruce Timm (for those that don't know, he was the helmer for Batman TAS, Superman, Justice League and their counterparts). The first DC series produced with CGI, it has a low-grade feel to it at times. When you pay attention, you realize that is intentional, as it looks like a 3D version of a Bruce Timm cartoon. The animation is fluid where it counts, and most of the episodes have a great story. Right now, the main plot revolves around the evil Red Lanterns, controlled by Atrocitus, and their attempts to destroy the Green Lantern Corps. For those not informed by the comics, the new colored Lantern Corps is a bit confusing since the show plays those characters very close to its chest. Little by little they reveal information about this group (including their basic origin), but it really isn't enough to convey the drama necessary for these characters. Hopefully the series will kick into high-gear now that the Red Lanterns' origin has been revealed and they begin their true plan to destroy the Green Lanterns. Until then, it is a decent show that will hopefully get better.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! - The only superhero show on this list that is already into season two. The show started off interestingly enough with a half dozen or so mini-episodes that showcased the characters involved in the series. The series weaved a great story involving various superheroes from the Marvel universe. Each episode presented its own epic story that further peeled back the plans of Loki and his desire to rule the universe. The end of the first season was a doozy, providing an epic clash between the heroes and villains, with a few intergalactic surprises for season two. Now, the series is bringing a slow build based on the Kree-Skrull war, and including even more heroes from the Marvel universe such as the Fantastic Four. Out of all of the shows that I've talked about in this blog, this series is the most fully realized. There is a clear understanding of who these characters are, and what story the writers want to tell. I think the only real downside is the voice work for Iron Man, and the problem with the Wasp (if you look around the internets, a lot of people cry foul over what happens to her in the show i.e. she gets the crap beat out of her all the time and rarely comes out on top without one of the male heroes to save her). Season two is attempting to rectify that by including female powerhouses like Ms. Marvel. Here's hoping season two will be just as good as the second.

Ultimate Spider-Man - The latest Marvel cartoon helmed by Jeph Loeb and featuring writers that have worked on various hit animated shows like Batman TAS, and Ben 10. This show is a very strange beast, over-emphasizing the comedy over the main story that is Spider-Man. Interestingly enough, it is loosely tied to the Marvel movies, including Nick Fury and Agent Coulson as the acting principal of Peter Parker's school. The show brings a focus on a new teen team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents including Power Man, Nova, Iron Fist, and White Tiger with Spidey as their de facto leader. I am of two minds of this series; on one hand the show looks great and is presenting a strange and new Spidey story and the comedy is funny when it's done right/ on the other, the show misses way too often on the humor and it becomes groan-inducing. The latest episode is a perfect example of this problem. The story calls for Spidey to begin hanging around Iron Man, and thus he gets a new costume. Unfortunately, the show begins to spend the rest of the episode with Spidey comedy based on his mess ups due to said costume. You know what would have been cooler? Actually seeing Spidey interact with one of his idols in more than just a "Hi! You're awesome! *Random science thing*" "That's cool, here is a suit I whipped up for you in an hour, Spidey." Yeah. The show has a long way to go to find the right balance between comedy and story, and if the show continues to have this problem it will lose its audience fast.


It truly is interesting that it is a showdown between Marvel and DC with two series each, on two rival networks (Cartoon Network and DisneyXD). While I am not sure of the ratings (I do know Avengers rated so well that they fast-tracked season two way before the third episode of the first season aired), they are all fairly reviewed well save for Ultimate Spider-Man. Based on my opinion, Marvel barely edges the victory with its Avengers series, but if Green Lantern hastens the pace and Young Justice season two starts with a bang, DC may become the animation victor once again. History has shown that DC series tend to work better in animation, be it due to higher budgets or greater talent, somehow they are reviewed the best and end up lasting the longest. Will history repeat itself again? It doesn't look like that is the case, especially with Avengers hitting its stride and a new Hulk cartoon in the works. Either way, it is a great time for superhero fans that happen to like cartoons!

Want to check out these shows? Green Lantern and Young Justice air on the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network Saturdays @ 9AM Central Time.
Avengers and Ultimate Spider-man air on DisneyXD Sundays @ 10AM Central Time.

A fanboy's review of Mass Effect 3

As I begin writing this review, I have just finished the game and am listening to the amazing music playing during the credits. Like any major book, or television series or movie, emotions rise as you reminisce about events that have transpired. Mass Effect 3 is a spectacular ending to a massive trilogy, but one that comes with a few unfortunate shortcomings.

In 2007 a company known for its heavy-Western RPGs released a science fiction epic called Mass Effect. While still an RPG in its own right, the game featured heavy emphasis on the player shaping the story with his or her decisions. Three years later, its sequel was released bringing about even heavier decisions and doing something no other game has truly done; carrying a story (with all the player had done) from one game to another.

Jump to current time, where it has been stated that this trilogy would not come to an end with the latest game, Mass Effect 3. If you've played the first two, you know what to expect. An epic story that ties together with what you've done in the previous games. If you've never played any of the games (and seriously, why haven't you?), then the story goes like this; You are a starship commander named Shephard who has been tasked with uniting the galaxy together to strike against a synthetic menace known as the Reapers who want to destroy all advanced organic life. Oh, and they happened to start their major push by attacking Earth.

Obviously, the story is more advanced than that, bringing about themes of cooperation, prejudices, and even inherent racism under the guise of a intergalactic space epic. BioWare has shown their affinity for detail by limiting this entire series to the Milky Way Galaxy. Before you go off thinking this sci-fi story is relatively small with just this one galaxy, keep in mind that you'll be exploring hundreds of planets within over a dozen solar systems. BioWare carefully orchestrates various types of aliens and planets within this series, giving enough diversity for any sci-fi geek to enjoy.

Throughout the game, you attempt to gain support from various major alien races by doing favors, such as saving one species' Primarch (think global king), or even sparking a population rise by destroying a genophage (long story, but one species spawned so fast that they would have taken over the galaxy, so their rivals essentially neutered them). It is an intense game of give-and-take as you attempt to amass a strong galactic alliance to take on the synthetic Reapers.

Along the way, you meet up with old friends (assuming you've played the previous games) and join up with new ones. It is here that we get to the first flaw in the game. If you've played the game prior, Mass Effect 2, you are used to your teammates wanting to do their own thing every now and then. If you helped them on these missions, well you gain their loyalty, which was a good thing. It is strange, in a game that is supposed to tie everything together, that a lot of these former teammates have completely gone their separate ways, especially when from a literary standpoint they should have known that your character would help them with their problems before going to the task at hand. It feels like a convenient excuse to have a limited number of teammates, which feels unnecessary for a game of this scope.

The gameplay is essentially a hybrid of run-and-cover gunplay and a mixture of "force" (or magic if you really want to get technical)-like abilities that can be upgraded as you gain experience points by finishing missions. Compared to the original Mass Effect, the RPG elements have been completely stream-lined to the point that this game is no longer an RPG. Many have complained about this, but I actually am okay with it. During my first game, I set the thing to auto-upgrade my squadmates and just did my own. I was more focused on the other element of player choice molding the story than I was about this type of gameplay. If I wanted a real RPG I'd go for Dragon Age (hah, don't get me started). Regardless, the run-and-cover gunplay is fairly exceptional in this game, moreso than the previous two. Unfortunately there are a few problems. The cover mechanics work fairly well when you are in open areas, but as the game progresses you end up in smaller and smaller places with "cover" spots littered everywhere. Since the run button and cover button are tied to the same, well, button, you more often than not end up running when you want to duck for cover, and ducking for cover when you just want to run. It can get frustrating at times, but it is never game-breaking. Regardless, it feels odd that the third game, which theoretically should fix these types of flaws (it has been a problem since the beginning) still has the same problems.

Player choice, as stated in the various paragraphs above, is a major factor in this game. In fact, the game pulls decisions from previous games moreso than Mass Effect 2 did. If you haven't played the first one in a while, or even the second one, you might end up getting confused over some of the things that are happening due to this. Thankfully, it doesn't take much to catch up, but it makes me glad that you can create an entirely new character (and choose a few certain key events) to completely change up the story if you choose to play again and again. It leads to a lot of replayability, which I will go into more detail later.

The graphics for this game are pretty sharp. Honestly it looks about the same as Mass Effect 2 to me, but I know there are differences, I just can't fully make them out. I do like how the gun physically shows what type of ammo you are using (there are three kinds not including normal rounds that help destroy certain types of enemies). The romance scenes play a heckuva lot smoother compared to the first two games. This time around during certain scenes it felt like I was watching a CGI movie, and not just a game trying to "show" me spectacular or emotional scenes with wooden 3D models. So, while the game may look similar, the animation is incredibly smooth. That is, it is smooth when you're character is involved, or when the camera pans closer for talking scenes. Otherwise, you get to crappy "character is talking but mouths aren't really moving" territory that is just downright sad. For a game of this caliber, it is disappointing to see things like this. I don't recall having the same problems with either of the other two games, but this time around you do spend more time listening to non-essential NPCs to gain interesting information, so I may just have not noticed it till now. Regardless, it really does take you out of the game when you see things like that, especially when it happens every. single. time on your ship, Normandy. You have a room you automatically go to when you complete major missions, and have to walk across an area to get to the part of the ship that chooses where you want to go next. Every time you pass by these two officers who are chit-chatting, and you are forced to stay there as the game loads. Unfortunately, every single time, the two are talking, but their lips either move every now and then, or not at all. I think it is a very big blemish on the game.

The questing system, which is basically what your missions are, are varied for about three hours. Not including the main missions, all of your side missions either include "go kill X amount of enemies here to evacuate people" or "I lost X artifact on this planet, if someone could just find it for me I'd be ever so grateful." It is an incredibly sad downturn from the last game, which had epic side-missions involving teammates. I understand the latest turn of events in the game tends to leave everything else a "waste of time" when you really think about it, but the stakes were just as dire the previous game and there was still time to "stop and smell the roses" with a variety of sidequests. The search side-missions usually are gained when you overhear conversations on the Citadel (think galactic meeting-station), and are the only time you use one of Mass Effect 3's minigames. When you enter Reaper-infested territory you have to scan the surroundings to find anything of interest. Every time you do, the Reapers begin to ping you and find your location. If the alert level reaches 100%, you have to rush out of the system and go somewhere else (that is until you complete a mission, then it thankfully drops back down to 0). It is an interesting and stressful game of give-and-take, but ultimately it is nothing to worry about. Usually via the mission log you find out what planet you need to scan to find needed artifacts, and if you are wanting to know if you've found everything there is a convenient Asset Percentage next to every star system to let you know if you need to keep searching. It isn't as annoying as the seek-and-find minigame was for the previous two games, but at the same time it almost feels non-essential (unless you want to get the absolute best ending, and you need all the assets you can get to do so).

Mass Effect 3 introduces multiplayer to the series for the first time. If you aren't an amazing player, then you'll absolutely need to play this part of the game in order to get the best ending. Every time you complete a multiplayer mission, it raises your Galactic Readiness rating, which boosts your total Assets (Hint: anything under 5000 on total Military Effectiveness and you won't be getting the best ending). Everyone automatically starts out at 50%, and each mission raises that incrementally (for me it was about 3% for every successful multiplayer mission). So what do you do during the multiplayer section? Well you and three others will be tasks with surviving 11 waves of enemies, every other wave adds a new mechanic such as hacking a computer or killing specific enemies within a short time frame. There are six or so multiplayer maps, with three different types of enemies; the Geth (robots), Cerberus troops (bad-guy humans), or Reapers (the nasty-looking ground troops of the main story's enemy). There are three difficulties (Bronze, Silver, or Gold levels), that determine how tough and how many enemies you face, and you go in choosing only two weapons under a pre-determined character (so no importing your main character which makes sense, but at the same time severely sucks). It takes some time getting used to playing, especially when you are used to having certain abilities, and only have a small selection here (in order to streamline the process, can't have you pausing the game deciding on what to do while the others are in play). Depending on how good your team is, expect each session to last from 20 to 40 minutes.

Now, here is the main problem. Unless you are spectacular at finding and doing everything needed to get a 5000 total military effectiveness rating, you will NEED to play this portion of the game. If you have a Playstation 3, it's no problem at all. You just hit multiplayer (assuming you don't have a used copy) and you are good to go, free of charge. If you are like me and buy it for the Xbox 360 then you have a slight problem. It is slightly alleviated with the 2 day Xbox Live Gold pass the game offers you, but I had to literally play for about 13 hours total to reach even a 90% readiness rating. After that I stopped. The multiplayer is slightly fun for about the first two hours, but after that you start recycling the same maps, missions, and enemies and it gets dull fast. Thankfully most of my sessions were with high-level players, so I moved through faster than most. To make matters worse, you don't get to import any weapons you receive in the single player game. Instead you start out with the weakest available, and you slowly earn credits that allow you to buy equipment packs from the multiplayer store. I find this to be the most insulting part of the game. For one, you don't get to choose what weapons you buy, you get them at random. Two, if you don't have any credits (which the lower level you are, the less likely you'll earn them), you can just buy them using Xbox Live points (or PSN's equivalent). This feels cheap, and an incredibly gimmicky way for EA/BioWare to gain extra money off of players.

Oh, I did mention that in order to achieve the highest rating without multiplayer you have to be really good at finding everything, right? I failed to mention that even if you do find everything with just the regular game, you STILL won't achieve the rating needed to get the best ending. You have to have the From Ashes DLC pack as well. Expect to spend another 8 dollars on that. It introduces a new mission and another squad-mate, that is pretty cool from a story standpoint, but the character feels useless during actual missions.

Now to backtrack back the questing system. This is where I found the greatest flaw in the game; an incredibly lazy quest-tracking system. In the previous game, your journal would update as you complete certain objectives in a mission. It helped to insure you stay on the right track and knew where to go. It was great for me, as I tend to do multiple missions before turning them in (especially since almost all of them are turned in at the Citadel, and that is just too much loading/waste of time to do one, turn it in, then do another). Don't expect that with this game. Your journal automatically drops you into the middle of your completed missions, so expect to waste time scrolling to the top (seriously, they couldn't make it automatically start at the top?). Next, don't expect it to do anything other than tell you the start point of the mission. So if you are like me, and do a bunch of fetch quests all at once, unless you write down or take mental notes of which ones you actually did, expect to go through every floor of the Citadel to figure out who to turn the quests to. It reeks of pure laziness, and is incredibly disappointing to see in a game of this caliber.

When it comes to the bugs in this game, don't worry there aren't anything too noticeable. I had one game-ending bug during multiplayer once, but I'll chock that up to my crappy internet. Other than that, the game runs smooth from start to finish.

Now, if you pay attention to gaming news sites, you might have noticed a lot of people have complained about the ending. Before getting to the endpoint, I was inclined to agree with them, as the way people explained it they made it seem like the ending is an incredible downer that apparently makes no sense with the perceived themes from the previous games. Now that I have finished the game, I can see why others are upset. If you choose a certain ending then things are going to be a little sad, regardless the themes of perseverance and cooperation are still there and remain unchanged. It could be that these other players may have just expected an incredibly happy ending, which makes no sense at all when you pay attention to all of the major things going on in the series. Regardless, the story is incredibly epic, and the ending will pull at your emotions if you let it.

In conclusion, it may seem like I am harping on this game a lot. I only do so because I expect more from the creators, especially when they knocked the other two games right out of the ballpark. That isn't to say this game isn't horrible, it is incredibly amazing, so much so that I recommend it for everyone to play. I just want people to understand that it isn't perfect. It is interesting to note that many review sites have ignored the problems I have seen in this game, and that's their opinion, they believe that the game as a whole is better than these "small" problems. I, on the other hand, expect a game of this caliber from developers that have been phenomenal to do better, so I was slightly disappointed in some of the design choices made in this game.

Graphics: 9 out of 10
Sound: 10 out of 10
Controls: 8 out of 10
Story: 9 out of 10
Gameplay: 7.5 out of 10
Total: 8.7 out of 10

Final take: Definitely buy this one, it may be shorter than the previous game but the story is epic and incredibly entertaining if you are into sci-fi!

Short (Shorts)

The characters and story contained herein are owned by Zachary Davis. Any attempt to copy or sell said story without the permission of the author is prohibited.

Well, with that out of the way. I mentioned a long time ago that I had a few short (short) stories that I was thinking about self-publishing via Amazon Kindle or something similar.
I still haven't decided whether any of these are good enough to do such a thing, but figured I'd at least start revealing a few here.

So, enjoy! Expect some type of 'real' blog post in the next few days.

The Elevator

“Well, shit.” The man said as he slammed his fist on the elevator panel.
“Apparently the power went out. How strange that there are no backup generators.” Another said aloud, to no one in particular.
“Heh, you’re not from ‘round here, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m from Dallas. This is only the second time I’ve been here.”
“Well, ain’t that somethin’! Name’s Brian, and you?”
“Alexander.” Instinctively he put his hand out for a handshake. Brian was quick to give him a strong one. It was almost painful to Alexander.
“How ‘bout you, girl? We may be stuck here for a bit. Might as well get to know each other!” Brian said as he looked at the young woman embracing the corner.
“Uh…name?” She said, apparently grasping at the English language. Brian laughed, and caught on to her problem.
“Lessee. My spanish isn’t great, but…” Brian gave a huge smile as he tried. “Meh…yamo…Brian…uh…too?” The girl smiled at his attempt.
“Yes, yes! Uh…name Arissa!” She said, happy that she figured out he meant names.
“Great, well, that’s out of the way.” Brian said as he stared at the shut elevator. “So, Alexander. Any ideas on how to get this thing opened?”
“Why would you think I would know?” Alexander replied.
“Oh, uh, sorry man. Just assumed you were smart or somethin’.” Brian actually looked a bit annoyed at the other man, though no one could tell in the dim emergency lights.
“Well…” Alexander looked around. Then he pulled out his cell phone. “No signal, of course.” Alexander went to the elevator door, and shuffled around for an alarm button.
“No need, man. This place don’t have those speaker things you see in other places. It’s too old.” Brian said.
“Fine. Well, I have no clue. It’s not like I ever bothered to learn how to open a dead elevator.” Alexander replied, shrugging down to the floor.
“Heh. No worries. I’m sure Sam will get it working soon.” Brian said, sitting next to Arissa.
“Who is Sam?” Alexander asked.
“Oh, just the resident handyman. Although some folks have a harsher name for him.” Brian looked at the other man, seeing if he was interested in the knowledge he had to give.
“Sam es trabaja por ciudad de –Ungerford?” Arissa said, apparently interested in the name.
“Sorry girl, I dunno what…uh…traba-hah means, but I caught the word Hungerford. That’s this town, so yes. Or, uh, si!” Brian said. Arissa looked happy, although none of the other men could guess why. Alexander turned to Brian.
“Harsher name?” He was curious as to what Brian meant.
“Hah. Yeah. Wanna know?” Brian said, glad he got the other man’s ear.
“Sure. I’m curious.” Alexander replied.
“Well, nigger-Sam is his name. Or that’s what some of the others say.” Alexander looked shocked.
“That’s something I don’t want to hear again, Brian. It’s not right.” Alexander replied with anger.
“Sorry, man. Was just sayin’.” Brian said, getting angry with the high-and-mighty Alexander. “Anyway, he’ll come around soon. He always checks the elevators when the power goes out.”
“Good. It’s starting to get hot in here.” Alexander said as he slouched down to the floor. An hour passed with no activity other than a few simple gestures between the three. Alexander was starting to get annoyed with the situation. To prevent sweating he took off his suit-jacket. Brian and Arissa looked hot, but hadn’t bothered to change. In anger, Alexander began to bang on the elevator door.
“Hello!” He yelled. “We’re trapped in here!”
“Now calm down, man. You scarin’ the girl!” Brian said, looking at Alexander who was starting to get nervous.
“Problem?” Arissa said, and Brian shook his head.
“Nah, no problemo girl.” Brian replied, smiling. He could tell she was starting to get bored. He was too.
“So, Alexander, what makes you come all the way down here?”
“Well, that’s complicated. And, frankly, it’s no concern to you so I don’t want to bore you with the details.” Alexander shuffled around with his phone. “Jesus, we’ve been stuck in here over an hour. Where is this Sam-guy?” Alexander shouted.
“Maybe he’s stuck somewhere, too. Heh, I dunno. Strange that no one has checked these things yet.”
A loud sound came from the front of the elevator. All three stared, wondering what was happening now. Shortly after the first noise, they spotted a crowbar sticking at the top of the seam. Slowly, the door was pried open.
“Well sorry bout that guy’s. De entire town is dead. Nobody knows what happened, but it ain’t comin’ back anytime soon.” They all stared at the top of the elevator door, where Sam stuck his head through.
“How the hell are we supposed to get up there? I didn’t realized this damned shaft was enclosed in concrete!” Alexander yelled.
“Yeah it’s old. Place been ‘round since before I was born. Anyway, if you three can help lift each other, I can pull de third one up!” Sam said as he wedged the elevator door open.
“Well then, I think it would be gentlemanly of us to help Arissa first, don’t you think…Alex?” Brian said, his face gave a wide smile and his teeth were in full display. Alexander noticed he was missing a few of them. Perturbed that this man called him Alex, he went over to Arissa and motioned her to the door. She smiled as they both offered to lift her up.
“Alright Brian. On the count of three. One! Two! Three!” Alexander said as they lifted her up. Brian noticed something metallic on Alexander’s side and prepared to move himself if needed. Sam grunted as he began to pull her through the small opening. Without paying attention, he accidentally kicked the crowbar, causing the elevator to shut.
“Dammit.” Brian said. Before anything else could be spoken, Alexander pulled out a gun and pointed it to his head.
“Finally got the girl out. Now we can finish this.” Alexander said, but as he pulled the trigger, Brian ducked and the bullet missed his head. Instead it slammed into the side of the elevator wall and the ricochet smacked Alexander in the shoulder. “Argh!” Alexander yelled as Brian knocked him to the floor.
“I knew who you were the moment you came in here, Alex boy!” Brian said, smiling wickedly. They could hear Sam trying to get the elevator opened, but the movements of the two men caused the elevator to shift. They heard Arissa scream as the elevator creaked.
“Looks like we’re trapped in here. Oh well. I smelled you the second you came in here. You gave yourself away when you said this was your second visit here. Last time you came my brother was killed. Shame your technology wasn’t working. Guess that’s cuz my boys wrecked the cell phone towers.” Brian slammed his fist hard into Alexander’s head. The man fell to the floor, unconscious. Brian opened his mouth, and the teeth that were originally missing popped out. He bit Alexander hard on the neck. After he was finished, he propped his body and climbed up to the top. He broke the ceiling hatch and jumped out. All Sam and Arissa heard was a sinister laugh as Brian crawled through the shaft to make his escape.

Folks Are Still Doing This Now?

I do understand that violent movies, games, and etc. can and will affect children, but when does the parent step in and actually, I don't know...parent the child? Mature rated games, rated R movies, even Parental Guidance music requires someone 17 or older to purchase. And yes, some employees at some stores don't enforce this, but the majority does. People need to stop blaming entertainment, and blame the parent that allowed the underage child to have that violent game, movie, or music in the first place.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/oklahama-state-rep-wants-violent-game-tax-6349668

There are two problems with Fourkiller’s statement about games.

1) 1) The man that apparently stole a cop car, and shot people, was actually mentally deranged. In fact, the game Grand Theft Auto had nothing to do with his actions. The man just came unhinged, and since people ignored the warning signs, he went on a slight rampage.

2) 2) The Rockstar game, Bully, is a bit of a misnomer. For starters, it is true you could sort of wreck havoc in the game as a quasi-bully, in truth you were an anti-hero facing off against “snobby rich kids that look down on anyone that has no money.” On top of that, you went against the actual bullies of the school, and even the terrorizing problems the faculty represent.

Now, it is true that Rockstar set themselves up with the title. They gave this game that title on purpose. Rockstar has always done that, though, they try and get a rise out of people.

So, Mr. Fourkiller is a bit worse, though, because he was once a teacher. He should know, BY EXPERIENCE, how hard it is to deal with children (especially those that parents don’t really involve themselves with the situations at hand). So, it seems inexcusable that he blames violent games instead of lack of parenting. Where is the blame against the music you hear on the radio? How about the television shows that depict violence and death (along with sexuality) on a regular basis?

Now, again, there is a LOT of parents that have to work all day. That leaves precious time for their children. The easy argument is to state, “Well, those people shouldn’t have children, obviously!” That isn’t something that is easy to come by. So, it is really easy to provide children with entertainment so that the parent can have some kind of respite from the day. It is so easy to cave in to a child’s demands so that you can just breathe!

And no, I don’t have children; I don’t know what it is like. So I do feel slightly wrong for making statements such as “Parents need to PARENT their children.” It is easy to dismiss any of my statements because I just don’t know. But I was a child in this situation. Thankfully, I had a mother (and grandparents) that explained the violence, and actually went out of their way to insure I knew right from wrong and that I understood the violence and sexuality shown were revealed as fantastical elements and things I should never do in real life.

Also, I had the advantage of being in an age where video games were not that, well, realistic. I had the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis during my youth. Sure, Mortal Kombat and Doom were pretty violent, but I knew from the get-go it was a fantasy and it never brought about violent rages in me.

The people that are affected by these things are actually affected by a lot more than just games. More than movies and music. The ones that commit horribly violent crimes are more than likely not right in the head, or missed out on the right life lessons usually provided by parents or proper role models.

So I should amend my argument, it’s not just that parents need to PARENT their children, but that society as a whole needs to actually become a true society. We should support each other; provide each other with that role model that inspires us to be our absolute best. On top of that, people need to be a bit more observant. We get those PSA’s all the time about speaking up against bullying, against domestic abuse, against drug abuse. Well, we actually need to do those things. Many times, the extreme violence people commit is avoidable if people would actually speak up when they see danger signs. Unfortunately, people hate being snitches. People hate being confrontational, people don’t like it when others act weird. Instead, we’ll just ignore them or comment about it being their backs in harmful ways.

I’m not saying we are horrible people; it’s just natural for people to back away from things that freak them out. It is so much easier to do that then actually try and see what’s going on. I’ve done it myself a few times, so I know how it is.

Well, I’ve gone off on a tangent. Anyways. Now it is time for the epic conclusion of this blog.

People need to stop blaming entertainment for all of our faults and the ills of the world! Seriously! Or better yet, if you are going to gang up on video games, gang up on all of it. You do realize that at prime time on BROADCAST television we get shows like Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Bones, Law & Order SVU, shows that depict violence, often in a fairly graphic manner. Seeing as all you need is a modern TV, you can see all of this for free.

In contrast, video games are a lot more expensive. Not only do you need to buy the box to play them on, along with said modern TV, but you spend at least $60 for new games. On top of that, there is a rating system in place for games, and most major retailers check ID’s if you look underage for Mature rated games. So there is a proper system in place to prevent kids from playing these games. So on average, who buys these games?

Welllll, remember that whole parents and parenting thing? In most cases, the parent actually comes by the register, buys the game, and hands it to their kid. Now, the latest excuse is “Oh I didn’t know about how the games are rated!”

Really? The box cover art clearly states Grand Theft Auto, or in the case of Gears of War you have the characters with huge chainsaw guns with blood everywhere. Yeah, you sure didn’t know. PAY ATTENTION! Most retailers are awesome enough to post somewhere near the games the ratings explanation. Even better, the registers will beep and show off the words (in capital letters) CUSTOMER OVER AGE 17? Same goes for rated R movies and Parental Guidance music.

So, come on folks. We need to stop blaming entertainment, and focus on ourselves when it comes to searching for the problems we have in society.

Why Must They Die?

Okay, so this blog post has a ton of spoilers. So if you haven’t seen a single superhero movie since Blade came out, then don’t read this blog.

Hah.

Anywho, since Blade came out back in 1998, there have been a total of 25 actual superhero movies. There have been numerous more comic-based movies, but I’m only counting the actual superhero ones here.

Want a list? Erm. Okay. In no particular order; Blade, Blade 2, Blade Trinity, Spider-man, Spider-man 2, Spider-man 3, X-men, X-2, X-men The Last Stand, Fantastic Four, F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Wolverine, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman Returns, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America, X-men First Class, and Ghost Rider. (Note: No I am NOT counting Elektra in this list, so don’t ask.)

I’ve noticed a distressing trend in these movies. In sixteen of the movies, the villains (or some of the villains) die. It is kind of strange that the movie writers and directors have chosen to kill off the villains instead of having them return to wreck havoc later. In fact, I find it incredibly annoying. Let’s take a look at how good some of the movies are that keep their villains.

For instance, the X-men series never killed off its mainstay villain, Magneto. Granted they almost took his powers, but that’s beside the point. In each movie (well, not The Last Stand, but that’s not his fault) he becomes a better character BECAUSE he is still around. In the first movie, he squares off against Professor Xavier and his mutant crew. In the second one, we get an awesome team-up, only for him to do his villain thing and betray everyone. It was grand!

Seeing as that’s a great example of keeping your big villains alive, why would so many choose to have them killed? In the Spider-man movies, we lose great villains such as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and even Venom because they decide the best way the story can move on is to kill them. Wouldn’t it have been that much better if in the second movie GG came back, with Doc Ock in tow, to cause a mess for Spidey. Heck they could have added Sandman still, and just leave out the Venom crap and it would have been pure awesomeness in a tin can.

Or worse yet, they have the superhero somewhat kill the villain (even when their coda is to not kill). Want an example? Batman Begins. Anyone that tries to justify Batman saying “I’m not going to kill you, but I won’t save you either.” Is okay, and that leaving Ducard to die on an exploding/crashing train is silly. It kind of defeats the purpose of Batman. He. Doesn’t. Kill. If that is his coda, to just ‘let people die,’ then why didn’t he just drop Joker at the end of The Dark Knight instead of stopping the wire from falling? He could have used the same thought process. Instead we get this huge character flaw that doesn’t jibe with the source material.

I think Hollywood is shooting themselves in the foot by killing off the superhero rogues gallery. Sure, we can have reboots and etcetera that bring them back in a “totally new, but totally the same” way. But why bother killing them in the first place? Usually the first couple of stories that these villains appear in the comics aren’t that great. It’s when they are an established presence in the book that provides better reads for the fans. I just hope the next batch of movies that come out decide to not kill off their villains.

Even better, Marvel is using their big villains for different movies. Thor introduced everyone to Loki (and even made him a bit sympathetic, kudos to Kenneth Branagh and the writing team for that movie). If you watched the trailer for The Avengers (and really, with it being the highest viewed trailer on iTunes, who hasn’t?), then you should know that Loki is the big bad for that movie. Now, this probably isn’t going to happen, but what if his army comprised of other Marvel villains we’ve seen in the movies? Oh wait, the movie can’t. Save for The Abomination, all of the others are dead (Well, I’m not entirely sure on Whiplash, it could be that he’s in prison, when Iron Man and War Machine have their explosive high five I can’t say for certain whether the dude lived or not). That’s a shame too. Wouldn’t it have been grand to see Red Skull and the crazed bald-headed Jeff Bridg..er…Stane back to cause problems for the heroes as well? Oh well.

[Note: Yes, Red Skull’s ‘death’ has obvious back-door logic applied to it. He can easily return thanks to the power of the cosmic cu….er….tesseract.]

Why do they kill off the villains? I think it has something to do with the way writers/directors/producers perceive the audience. Apparently, they assume that in order to have a proper resolution, especially when the villains do something incredibly heinous, they need to die. Otherwise, the audience won’t be satisfied.

Want some great examples that prove this wrong?

Granted, Fantastic Four wasn’t that good of a movie, but instead of killing the main villain, they incase him in metal that he can’t escape out of (oh yeah, that worked brilliantly for the next movie).

The Joker does a heckuva lot more damage that Two-Face does in The Dark Knight, yet in the end he is placed in Arkham Asylum instead of dying. Please note that The Dark Knight is the highest grossing superhero movie ever, proving that audiences will enjoy the movie without the main villain dying.

Hopefully, the next batch of movies that start coming out next year will begin to end this trend of the villain dying. I want Lizard to live in Amazing Spider-man, only to see him in the third movie along with the Sinister Six. Oh, and I want Bane to live too.