Posts Filed Under: brief nerdity

With the holiday travel obligations behind me, it’s nice to be back at Home.

The random default avatar I was furnished with for the PS3 Home beta was a cute female with brown hair and freckles, and bore an uncanny resemblance to my wife, so I stuck with it. Oh, the hilarity that choice has brought me! This YouTube clip about sums up every time I log in (but with a twist):

Sony has got some things right with Home. I think it’s pretty sharp looking, and could be community-building platform Sony has been hoping for. But it also has done some things horribly wrong. Waiting in virtual lines for bowling or while in the arcade? Seriously?

At least its virtual denizens will be protected from flying phallus attacks. May we be so lucky in RL.

So, yeah, Ed Boon just came over, and we played some MK vs. DC.

While Mike had to be all professional like, and take notes for Kotaku and shit, I got to chat about Noob Saibot. Ed got a big kick out of that. “Sadly, [Noob Saibot] is taking a break this round out.” You can tell Ed Boon is a real gamer. He’s the kind of guy you want hanging around your living room, hogging the controller, and getting pissed when he can’t pull off a Fatality after he beats you. (Mike then offered him a move sheet.)

But what’s even better is the fact that you can ask Ed about hidden characters in Mortal Kombat, and instead of pulling some rumor out of his butt like all your friends do, he actually knows. “I was in a KFC in Illinois, when I thought ‘Oh, we can just do a green palette-swap [for Reptile]. Then I drove back to the office and did it in an hour. I thought to myself, no one’s ever gonna find this. Two weeks later, you guys found everything. There was an arcade I went to later and they had a sign above their Mortal Kombat cabinet, ‘Find the Reptile Man and win a prize!’”

Mike then recounted our own experience trying to unlock Reptile in the original MK. We were going to college in Pittsburgh, and after reading about the existence of Reptile for the first time at Eide’s Entertainment, we rushed over to the super shady Grey Hound bus station across the street to give it a go. I kept the homeless guy trying to sell us drugs at bay while Mike executed a Fatality, obtained a double flawless victory, and never hit block during the winning round on the Pit stage.

MK vs. DC brought that feeling back. I found myself really enjoying the story mode. Having Ed Boon personally explain the plot difficulties for having The Flash fight Batman, though enjoyable, wasn’t necessary. Midway came up with a fairly elegant solution for why the two “good guys” would be brutalizing each other. And the transition from story cinematic to playable fight sequence was handled with equal finesse. But the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Amidst the confetti for pulling off a difficult combo in one of the training modes, I half expected Dan Forden to pop out and exclaim “Toasty!”

As things were winding up, I asked Ed if he still kept in touch with George Gomez. He said he did, so I gave Ed an Auto Hunter shirt to pass along to George. George, if you’re reading this, Spy Hunter is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I will own a sitdown cabinet one day. Hope you like the shirt!

For some reason, hearing that Darth Vader was going to be in my Soul Calibur didn’t bother me at all.  I thought it was so stupid, it was going to be great.

When I first heard Sub-Zero was going to be going toe-to-toe with Batman, I thought it was stupid. Period.

Fast forward to E3, I got served a nice hot steaming pile of crow.  To me, MK vs. DC was the surprise hit of E3.  The game played great.  The weight behind the punches could be felt.  The graphics looked stunningly iconic.  And it is beyond fun controlling The Flash.  Imagine how fast this match-up is gonna play out.

And they totally nailed The Joker too.  It’s going to take more than that to wipe the grin off his face.

Leipzig Games Convention saw some more MK vs. DC characters released today.  Welcome Raiden and Kano, I’d like you to meat Deathstroke and Wonder Woman.

So, how do you like your crow served?

It looks like things are engaging for Star Trek Online.  Spock has even been recommissioned to speak on the subject during a media event this weekend in Vegas (which you may watch live).

That’s honestly all I want to hear about it.  I have sworn off MMO’s forever.  I don’t want to know players travel through the galaxy by foot, by transporter beam, at impulse power, at warp, and via new transwarp conduits constructed by the Federation during the twenty years that have elapsed since Star Trek: Nemesis. Nor do I care there is both personal and ship-to-ship combat. And I’m not at all interested that over a hundred ships have been recreated in the game, at least 50 of these obtainable by players. None of these things matter to me because they are wrapped up in an MMO, and I will not be assimilated.

I prefer to let my warm ST:TNG memories fade and mutate into hilarious Internet memes.

Something you might not know about Meat Bun co-founder Scott is that he has a gift for pachinko. When we visited Akihabara a few years ago, with the above Evangelion promo was running at a pachinko hotspot — no photos allowed inside — his natural ball bearing aiming skills surfaced. We later had his wrists professionally gauged. Both joints have an average suppleness rating of 9.41, practically unheard of in a caucasian.

Sadly, as it appears that Tokyo Game Show is not in my future plans, I’m even more devastated to learn of the release of 24: The Pachislot, recently promoted by Carlos “Tony Almeda” Barnard and bikini model Aki Hoshino in Tokyo to great effect. There’s a PlayStation 2 version coming, but it just won’t be the same without the blaring sounds, the stench of Marlboros and the intense confusion of a pachinko parlor.

At least there’s shitty art.

Having just seen Keifer and Carlos at Comic-Con — this is about as hard as I nerd out, by the way — makes the inaccessibility of 24: The Pachislot that much harder on my being.

Perhaps the most distressing thing about skipping the annual Tokyo trip this year is that no Japanese commuters will find restful slumber upon our shoulders.

Dream match-ups don’t get better than this.  Yes, that is Afro Samurai vs. Go Go Yubari.  Thank you Project Soul for making Soul Calibur IV so fuckin’ awesome.

GAF is even suggesting that Star Calibur be made.  Don’t stop with just Darth Vader, Yoda, and Starkiller (check out those combos!)  Let’s see the whole damn Jedi Order!  We may even let you Force Choke us with microtransactions.

I hope this infatuation settles down soon, but somehow I doubt it.  Until then, I anticipate quite a few more playin-’til-3-AM nights.