Rediscovering My PSP

I'd forgotten about this gem of a system. I've been to busy with my other consoles--or just other things in general. However, Loco Roco, a fine and silly game, brought me back into the fold, and now I'm thinking about video games much more than I have in years.

Currently, I'm playing a small, overlooked title called CRUSH. It is pretty much the coolest puzzle game you've never heard of. If you have a PSP and you like puzzle games and you overlooked/missed/forgot about this one, do yourself a favor and track a copy down. It has such a simple premise, but is one of the best designed and intriguing games I've ever played.

Basically you are an insomniac trying to discover why he can't sleep. To find the reason, he's enlisted a scientist and his machine to help out. You play through these puzzles, collecting your marbles, avoiding inner bugs and such, and solve puzzles by rotating the camera and "crush"ing your 3-D world into 2-D, letting you have access to places previously unreachable. Sound confusing? It's probably just my writing.

The game itself is nothing short of fantastic, and I'm already itching to get home and play a few more levels.

Mario SuperStrikers and What It Taught Me About Life

I started this blog a moment ago, then realized it was one big complaint/begging for your pity. That is lame. Instead of my selfish rant, you get my blurb for Mario SuperStrikers.

Granted, many of you have probably already played this until it is no longer any fun for you. However, I tried it for the first time last night. Normally, I do not like these kinds of games. Yet, as usual, the Mario team takes a familiar concept and extends it beyond the normal demographic. Sure, true soccer/football aficionados most likely think it is lame, but I would be that many a younger child has now developed an interest in the "real" game because of Mario's bastardized version.

I think this is something we should look to do in all things. Seriously. We need to make Mario-everything. Well, not actually having Mario in everything we do/make, but I think there needs to be an accessibility built in to everything we do. And in that, we need to ensure that the essence/basics of the thing is not changed by this accessibility. This is definitely not a new concept, but I think we can learn something here from Mario and his games: When we give our audiences an overall fun/entertaining experience, we present ANYthing, and audiences will love us.

Maybe it's just a strange tangent/rant, but it makes sense to me. I'm going to go Mario-ize my world.

Mindless Entertainment

Before there was RockBand and the like, there were two games by Harmonix (creators of Guitar Hero and RockBand) called Frequency and Amplitude. I was obsessed with the two of them. Obsessed.

I spent hours trying to conquer every song on the highest of difficulties. I ruined my eyes playing those games (No, really, I didn't blink enough, which caused my contacts to shrink while STILL IN MY EYES, thus re-shaping my astigmatism into something even worse. I now where my glasses when playing RockBand and such.) I pissed off my friends playing those games--them hearing the same beats, same songs, me cursing, over and over and over and over and over again. Those were good times.

Yesterday, I busted out Amplitude once again. Man, such a good time. Nothing to think about. You don't really have to concentrate. You just let your mind fog over, check out and let your reflexes run the show.

It made me happy. And lately, this seems to be something that's harder and harder to do...

I Really Should Quit Lying to Everyone

No comic today. Since my friend has come to visit, I haven't had the normal time to spend on making such fantastic amusements for the lot of you. Instead, we've been playing video games and watching movies, which I will detail for you here.

Resident Evil 5: The newest installment in the Resident Evil franchise has been a rather amusing game, although it is much different compared to the other games. The most notable of these is the co-op addition, which makes for a good time. Also, the atmosphere of the earlier games has been replaced by the fear of numbers, the vast array of zombies coming your way. In some ways this is good, as you never know when and where the zombies will be coming from. In other ways, it detracts from the game as a series. While there are still a few moody/atmospheric moments, overall the game feels/plays more like a Gears of War or Army of Two. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun game. It's just a bit of a departure from the normal RE formula.

I Love You, Man: The latest buddy comedy has become a full on bro-mance. Basically, take your ordinary chick-flick/relationship film and replace the chick with a dude and subtract all the making out. It's actually quite amusing how John Hamburg has taken an often used storyline and made it fresh--but nothing ground-breaking. It's a consistently amusing film, but there isn't really any ONE moment that makes the film amazing. Many will probably just find the film stupid, but the other half will enjoy themselves. Honestly, if the trailer looked like something you might enjoy, then you probably would.

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade: Yet another random martial arts/ninja movie. This one has a few cool moments, the fight sequences being the highlight, but it's nothing that will melt your face. If you are a fan of such films, this one is one of the better ones. It's pretty enough, but the story is rather lacking. I can't really recommend it, but you don't need to avoid it like the plague either.

Gibberish tomorrow.

Boggles My Mind

I don't understand why two of the best games I've ever played would not sell for even $.99. As Robert Plant has before me: It really makes me wonder. I'm speaking of my eBay auctions--if you didn't notice. They are doing fairly well, but seriously, when I sell a game like Revolution X for $5.00 and get nothing for two amazing games, it just goes to show that the gaming world is just as bad as the rest of the entertainment world: It's not what is ACTUALLY good that gets attention, but the things they TELL you are good. Makes me downright sick.

So, as I have yet to really push for any sort of participation, I want to know what game you fell in love with that the world seems to ignore. What game is "classic" in your mind, but maybe not the eyes of the world? What gem have you found amongst the trash?

For me, it would be one of two games (only one of these was actually up for auction): Primal or Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. By far two of the coolest things I've ever played and I heartily recommend you get your grubby mitts on either one--or both. I'm pretty sure you could pick them up for cheap cheap.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is the big week of big meals, big travel, and--quite possibly--big headaches. I'm hoping everything goes well as my family is headed this way on Wednesday, and my wife and I need to finish our preparations.

Yesterday was loads of fun, grocery shopping and trying not to let my heart stop when I saw the final bill. Luckily, I buffered that frightening occurrence by watching a film from my childhood, Erik The Viking. Quite the film, if you've never seen it and are either a fan of Terry Jones or Tim Robbins.

And as I did when I needed my tablet, I'm selling off more of my video game collection via eBay. You can see them here, and I suggest you check back often, as I will be adding many more games, DVDs, and books on a daily basis.

I suppose that's about it. Gibberish will fill out the rest of the week, and depending on how things go, there might be a new development on the comic front come Monday. Anyway, Happy Turkey Day all, I hope you have a fantastic holiday and take a few moments to think about what, truly, matters most in your life.

Ready...Set...

As of today, my life is officially ridiculously busy. Officially. I have yet to start on my final packet for school--a packet that is due on this upcoming Saturday. Also, there are meetings here at work that will last through the rest of the week and basically make my life all hullabaloo. This will not be a fun five days.

In other news though, my friend and I had a good visit. We played through Gears of War 2, which was fun enough but much much easier than the first. We also watched quite the selection of movies and shows, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which was much much funnier than I expected), Quantum of Solace (which was better than other Bond films but not as good as Casino Royale), Pushing Daisies (which is one of the first shows in a long time that I'm quite into), and Kung Fu Panda (which I consider to be the best of the animated films this year--yes, even against WALL-E). We also ate at a number of tasty restaurants around the Lincoln area... and that's about it. Nothing too eventful but fun nevertheless.

And that about sums everything up for the last few days. More Gibberish tomorrow.

Back to Normal...

Hooray bad puns for titles!

As the title says, my back is pretty much okay now. It still hurts a bit, depending on what I'm doing, but for the most part, I can function normally again. I'm quite happy about this, seeing as one of my good friends is coming to visit from Colorado. He's riding the train in tonight, and our days will be filled with shenanigans--or video games and movies, those are like shenanigans.

What this means for you is a bonus comic on Friday, since I won't take the time to blog (which is probably more pleasurable for you anyway). As I mentioned on Monday, I have a full color comic to show off. I tried to experiment with color and technique--as I tend to not use either of such things. And though I'm relatively pleased with the final product, it will probably be some time before you see another such thing--this one took for freaking ever.

The only other thing I'll add before bidding you ado for the week is for you to please notice my "Share" button along the right side. If you happen to find any of my comics amusing, please help a guy out and pass them along. Post them to your Facebook, to Reddit, Digg 'em, whatever. The only way Gibberish will ever spread is if you share it with someone that might enjoy the thing. I'd be much obliged. Just consider yourself a Gibberish streetcrew. Who knows? Maybe I'll come up with some rewards for such things. Thanks much, everyone, and I'll see you on Monday.

Update on the Pad Front

If I were an adolescent girl, the title of this blog would be dreadfully wrong, but since I'm not, it's okay--just chock full o' innuendo. What it means for me is that I'm this much closer to getting me a tablet for all my drawing funses.

Along with my ad whoring and customized magnets, I've posted almost 25 video games for sale on eBay. If you're into video games--especially random RPGs for the PS2 and Gamecube--I've got a decent set of items for your perusal. Go here to check out all that I'm selling. I'm hoping that I can average about $3.00 per game, and get meself about $75.00 towards my tablet cause, which will put me at about the halfway mark.

What's that you say? Wacom Intuos tablets are quite expensive, much more than $150. 'Tis true, but I've found another Wacom product that should suite my needs. The Bamboo Fun (Medium). It might not be quite as elaborate or advanced as the Intuos, but it's a crapton cheaper and should work just fine for what I need to use it for. I may regret this down the line. But I have a feeling that if I ever get to the point that I need an Intuos or something better, I'll probably be able to afford the stupid thing.

Hopefully, I'll have a tablet up and running by the end of the month. Wish me luck.

Oh, yes, and as for my surprise, come back tomorrow and all will be reavealed.

Gun DAY!

So just to prove that I have some manly instincts or needs or some third man-type thing, here are some picks of me holding big guns. Perhaps I'm just trying to make up for a lack of something, but then again, maybe I just like to shoot the crap out of inanimate objects.

Me after I just plinked about six of the 10 cans with one load of the SKS.
Both my wife and I shot a rock--yes, a rock--from about two hundred yards out. Apparently the rock was only about 3 X 3, but I couldn't say for certain. All I can say is that is was friggin' teeny in the scope. Though as for anyone that says you can learn shooting from a video game, I'd say it's about right.

In other, non-shooting news, I've been thoroughly enjoying this comic called Erfworld. Funny stuff, especially if you are a bit of a nerd such as myself. I also plan on seeing Kung Fu Panda today. I don't have much hope for it, but you'll be able to read the full review come Monday. I'm more excited about You Don't Mess With the Zohan, but Logan is going to do that one instead--since I am supposed to be the animation buff after all.

Anywho, have yourselves a mighty fine weekend, and I'll catch up with you on Monday.