blog to the future

Below is a quick look at a Japanese Shinto shrine. This is the second I’ve seen and it is located about 25 minutes from Kansai Gaidai on foot.

Shinto Shrine in Hirakata-shi, Japan from Nick Saunders on Vimeo.

First some blog talk:

I’m planning on updating the design of this blog (I hate it) but am having trouble getting into my site over the crazy firewall at this university. Hopefully I can figure something out.

That’s all of the housekeeping.

So I’m in Japan. Have been for about 48 hours. Quite a lot of stimuli and different experiences. Right now, what is most prevalent is the exhaustion and trepidation with my Japanese. I’m certain that I have never walked so much in my life. Plus it is incredibly hot. I’ve had one shower for every twelve hours here.

Random thoughts and observations (I know, lazy):

• The food is AMAZING (see my flickr for pictures)
• I love meeting global students!
• The campus I’m on is very nice
• The proliferation, and low-keyness of the technology
• Looks like I’m going to put that memory of riding a bike thing to test
• I wish the sunscreen wasn’t so expensive
• Quite a lot of subtle and not so subtle Westernization
• Japanese people very friendly
• I can’t wait for fall weather

As I mentioned earlier my flickr is being updated frequently with a ton of pictures. Check it out if you like.

All for now. Hopefully more soon; I would like to talk more specifically about the Japanese people and their culture. We’ll see….

I’ve just (okay, 3 weeks ago when I started writing this post) completed the final story mission of Grand Theft Auto IV. A game I haven’t seen receive the level of near-universal acclaim it has since… well since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Browsing quickly over the multitudes of perfect reviews you frequently see such flame-war-baiting comments as “Grand Theft Auto IV doesn’t just raise the bar for the storied franchise; it completely changes the landscape of gaming.”

And yet, once again, this series seems to be the golden boy of hardcore and casual gamers alike. Sure you can prefer COD4’s multiplayer to Halo, or certain sports games over other games of the same sport; but you never speak against the giant, open-world perfection that Rockstar so lovely gifts us.

My arguments (briefly):

First and most importantly, this game is not revolutionary. Every positive aspect in this game appeared in some form in the pervious three games.

This is not a leap in games storytelling; we have seen cutscenes before, them being expertly acted (both voice and character) as they are here, is just honing. Also, these promises (and who’s promises they are is something for another post) of interactive storytelling is simply a misunderstanding of what those two words together mean. Is there a partial amount of storytelling given while the player is participating in gameplay? Yes. But listening to dialogue between characters that isn’t important enough for a cutscene, while driving, is not a combination of the two. Your actions in the gameplay never effect this either, apart from the very occasional expletive shouted when driving reckless.

Really any praise given to the games flexibility is misguided. Beyond the basic player choices we have seen for years, ‘Which mission should I complete first?’, ‘Should I press my luck for a goodnight-kiss?’, ‘Should I take the AK-47 or the Carbine?’, the only new component involves certain crossroads where the player must decide between two incredibly interesting options… kill NPC A because NPC B asked me to, or kill NPC B because NPC A asked me to. Now this is fine in theory. Even initial execution of the mechanic is well-handled (well, the first 2 times). The problem however is how little your actions effect your progress through the game. Each time this happens in the game, 3 or 4 times, not only does the poor sonofabitch you choose to whack out of the game but the survivor is as well! You get little more than a phone call confirming your choice and then the ability to pursue a friendship using the really quite pitiful relationship simulator. If these choices dramatically effected branching paths (and there’s no good reason they shouldn’t) you could argue it reaches the level of most modern RPGs.

As you can guess I could go on for a little while here, but that’s more than enough. For some other interesting, better-written GTAIV comentary check out the glorious N’Gai Croal and pretty darn great Stephen Totilo’s most recent Vs. Mode.

Oh, and where are all the people complaining last fall about Bioshock’s admittedly binary ending? This game doesn’t even have the 2 endings it claims; it’s got 1.5.

Apologies for the quiet month, been busy.

Below is a stupid little video I recorded with my new camera a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35. It’s nifty.

I’m thinking about adding another page on the blog of my recommendations in various mediums; I’ll use this post as a test run.

Strangers In Paradise
Terry Moore’s epic relationship saga is easily over 100 issues and I couldn’t burn through them fast enough over the last month. Started in 1993 the series just finished up last year.
I believe the term ‘genre-busting’ is used when something is not easily defined due to a mixing of different sensibilities. According to that SiP is exactly that, genre-busting, but I found that it doesn’t feel like a fair categorization. Sure there’s romance, comedy, and action, but instead of feeling like an amalgamation of each of those the series creates its own; a genre where talk of love and marriage can occur just before flashbacks to a Yakuza hit and political conspiracies. These often drastic tonal changes aren’t just refreshing, they are expected.

An excellent example of what else the comic form can produce.

Scott Pilgrim
Stop reading this right now and click the lovely buy button to your left. Just trust me.
You back? Okay good. To continue with the Canadian love-fest; next up is Bryan Lee O’Malley’s bottled (or written/drawn) joy Scott Pilgrim. The misadventures of an early 20’s nerd with no job, limited guitar skills, and a nice guy streak. The very real emotions between Scott and peers is mixed with the surreal of fighting evil ex-boyfriends or the terror of running into your deadly ex-girlfriend. It all creates the single most fun thing you’re likely to read.
Also in ‘news that makes Nick think the universe might have had something after all with the whole big bang thing’ comes this. You wouldn’t want to be one of those people who read something just before or after the release of an adaptation.

Let me know if you like things like this and I’ll do more.

I’m a little behind on covering the iPhone announcements from March 6, but better late than on time right? Here’s the mahalo page with links to the many stories than came out of the annoucements.
My thoughts:

• In traditional Apple fashion they gave people what they asked for (mostly) but made it seem like Apple had the idea first.
• This is the first time I’ve gotten the sense of the iPhone/iPod Touch as a true computing platform. I see some many hardware iterations. . . .
• It’s pretty interesting how nearly every quibble hurled at the iPhone at launch will be dealt with after only one year. And I think they all will be covered with the 3G iPhone launching with software 2.0 in June.
• The news is simply exciting for the mobile community, Google is going to have a lot of catching up to do with Android. I can’t wait.

More coming later today. Including one of the lamest posts so far(!).

The disowned Nintendo Gamecube had more than a few stellar games. My personal favorite was Eternal Darkness. A refreshing take on survial horror with just enough Lovecraft thrown in to be fun but never taking the place of gameplay (looking at you Call of Cthulhu). It was made by a Canadian developer named Silicon Knights, who’s next game, Too Human, has been in development for multiple platforms for over a decade. The first in a planned trilogy, the adventure/RPG mixes Diablo combat and exploration in a third-person perspective all set in a cyberpunk, Norse mythology-fulled world!! Below is an interview from the great MTV Multiplayer blog by Stephen Totilo with SK main man Denis Dyack. It’s good stuff, watch and enjoy.

The next time you feel the need to experience something truly crazy I recommend it being Crank. I won’t spoil any of the insanity (or the awesome cameo from a certain nu-metaler) but trust me when I say it is well worth 85 minutes of your time. You will have to ignore some fairly blatant sexism though, but in hindsight the film’s portrayal of all people is insulting.

Has anyone else noticed how quick the turn was in the Democratic nomination race from subtle hostility to outright attacks. Evidence from both the main and psuedo-mainstream. Either outcome tomorrow is going to exciting.

 Warm weather in Morgantown creates a different kind of walking experience. You first notice the increased foot traffic; honestly where are these people on cold, snowy days? Next of course you are “gifted” the chance to see college girls dress more ridiculously than any other season. My favorite today was awesome frat guys and their awesome frat cargo shorts. Mr. Kaki here obviously just purchased himself some, uh, awesome shorts, and with such gusto for education only a massive hangover can give you, left this morning with the Size 40 sticker still stuck on his right thigh. Damn.

I’m writing this after a marathon of activity my world has rarely known. The idea of starting a blog is not new (fact: I’ve purchased three domains previously with this very intention); but as good things often occur, I was procrastinating at the optimal level this evening and here we are.  Content should involve discussions of current events in a wide range of my interests. I usually can’t convince an audience in a physical sense to indulge me; this will work out better for all.