Bad design is so much more fun.

Bad design is honestly more fun than good design. Good design simply is good; often there is not much to say because just looking at it instills a sense of satisfaction on some level. Bad design, we get to point out just why it is inharmonious.

For this assignment, I figured I'd stick with my modus operendi and do something video game related. In this case, cover art. Once upon a time, we didn't have this new-fangled "Internet" contraption. All we had to go by when it came to picking out if a game was good or bad was the cover art. Surprisingly, the vast majority of it in the late 80s and early 90s was atrociously bad despite the game itself being quite good.

Let's start out with the good design. I present to you the box art for Batman: Arkham City.

I love, love, love this art cover. Ignore the X-Box 360 garish neon green for a moment (Seriously, Microsoft, could you pick a more austentatious ugly color for every game for your system?) and just look at the image itself. It's just well put together and draws your eye. Gestalt principles at work here I believe are the Law of Pragnanz and the Law of Continuity. The entire artwork is in grayscale except for the red of the blood on Batman's fists and under his nose. (The bloody nose is actually foreshadowing, as well. Great job by Rocksteady capturing such an integral moment in the game's plot just in the artwork.) It immediately draws you in. It's incredibly simple from that regard. No one even really notices the Wayne Enterprises building in the background of the image at first glance because the figure and pose of Batman is so striking.

As for continuity, we actually begin this one by looking at the white space between Batman and his logo. While that seems at odds, trying to draw your eye in both directions, it works for this reason: the logo is simple enough it immediately lets you absorb it and then focus on the rest of the image. There's a circular loop one's eye draws, without really causing stress.

Contextually, there's a lot going on here. As I already mentioned, the cover foreshadows a great deal into the game. (I advise anyone to play it, not just Batman fans. It's really quite good.) Second, Batman is a known pop culture entity, and currently relevant. His last movie was a huge success and there is a considerable amount of hype for the next one. This means the art designers can play off public perception: All other Batman related things as of late are dark and gritty. Inside the game, it is that way. However, the art is very light. It's a dark grim city, but the contrast was jacked up so high even the grey sky appears white. It's very opposite of how we think of Gotham and of Batman.

It's also eye-catching on any given game store's wall. It isn't a busy cover, unlike so many other titles, so it actually catches our eyes more. Plus, it is mostly greyscale and light, so it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the neon green of the physical case of it and every game nearby. If every game used that same color scheme, it obviously wouldn't be as effective. It is highly stylized, a signature feature of the modern Batman brand.

NOW ON TO THE FUN PART: Bad design.

Check out the cover art to the Sega Genesis game, Strider. The original arcade game came out in 1989 and the Sega Genesis release came out just a year later toward the end of 1990, so keep that in mind.

What is going on here? I can't even... what is th-... Wow. I mean wow. It was ugly back then. Looking at it now 20+ years later, it's just a glaring eyesore.

There are so many things wrong with this, most notably the fact the only thing this has to do with the actual game itself is the main character wears purple. Let's talk about gestalt principles.

The Law of Proximity has an effect. Strider's character is leaping out of the box and the bad guys are all in the background, grouped together simply by standing together. The law of continuity is also in effect because we are drawn to what seemingly 3-d object is "closest" to us then we go ahead and look back at the rest. There is at least the left to right flow going on.

The whole 90's art style was ugly. There is no contrast in the image at all. You go from this ugly purple super space man outfit this oddly Russian looking guy is wearing to a floating pink city to more purple jumpsuits, just on bad guys this time. Then, you've got this really cheesy 'motion' effect on the sword, like he's slashing it, but the guy is in such a hero pose it seems odd and out of place. There is no way a guy standing like that making that face is also performing a combat action. It's simply not believable.

The worst part is how it has so very little to do with the game. Part of the coolness factor of the title was the weird tonfa-like plasma saber the Strider in-game used. This guy is wielding a very non-descript broadsword? Weird. He's also blond, instead of Japanese. Again, this is odd. Unlike old NES titles, people had a fair grasp of what Strider was supposed to look like because graphically, the game was ahead of it's time. Let me show you a few screenshots.

He is not some Aryan-looking body builder. Guy is a lithe ninja, with brown hair and his garb is more traditional ninja type affair, not some muscle suit. And again, the sword. (How could they get that wrong when it was such a key feature of the coolness of the game? URHHGGG.) Also, it doesn't look like he's stuck in the Tetris castle.

The worst, worst, worst part of all this is the game already had really good concept/"cover" art for it's initial Arcade launch. Check out this flyer, the type of thing you would have seen on the sides of the Japanese arcade cabinet:

I think given the time period and local (remember, Japanese game) this type of thing worked. Weird, yeah, but at least you got a sense of what the game was about: a ninja killing a bunch of cyborgs. You also had complimenting colors, with the blue suit of the protagonist against the fiery oranges and reds of all the bad guys displayed, so there is a visual pop.

Positive thinking leads to a lot of negative thinking.

I enjoy my life right now, except for one major area but we'll get into that later. I'm enjoying school. I've finally picked up a creative hobby in playing my guitar. I am a pretty deep thinking person, because I know I am engaging to talk to. I'm also just about the most loyal person ever, never lie to anyone, and am very helpful to anyone who asks for it. 

That doesn't stem out of my pathological need to feel needed, either; I am just a helpful person because why not? If anything, my helpful nature stems from boredom. Someone needs me for 3 hours to paint their house or something, why the hell not? I'd just sit around and watch TV or pluck at my guitar or play video games. It's FUN to go out and do things to benefit other people, at least for me.

So why do I feel so alone all the time? I'm doing everything in my power to exude that confidence everyone always talks about, to put forward uplifting messages to other people around me. And none of the rewards that are supposed to come with it happen.

I still sit alone for 80% of my conscious day. I try to find solace in that solitude, but it's really difficult. Yeah, it's nice sometimes, but when it's all the time and has been all the time for the last couple years, it's really painful. Solitude by choice is nice; solitude despite every effort to make otherwise is not.

It's baffling. All the older people in my life tell me they think it's baffling, as well; that they don't understand why I'm so unpopular with my peers.

It's not lack of confidence. I know if anyone gave me a chance, I'd be their best friend or whatever. I'm a caring, giving person. It just sucks it's one of my best qualities and I never have a chance to showcase it. The reason I always search for input on how to better myself is more out of pure lack of understanding. In fact, I'd say my confidence leads to my apparent lack of confidence. You try spending several months holed up in your room invisible to the people you care about most, and tell me it makes any sense to you.

Maybe that's the problem. I have to quit asking for advice, because fuck you. I don't need advice. I'm awesome, goddamn it. Maybe everyone just gets mad at me for getting mad at them they are giving  me advice I already try to follow.

It'd be cool to be Greek.

I'd love to sit around and philosophize all day. It's pretty much what I do already, but it'd be so much cooler if I was a public nuisance like the students of Socrates. That's something history tends to downplay, is he was criticized heavily in his own day for "corrupting the youth," indeed what he eventually was put to death for.

I'll be straightforward: this post is mostly so I can deal with my own thoughts. Come along for the ride if you want.

I used to laugh at the whole concept of a midlife crisis. It seemed so silly to me. Men get in their fifties, then basically lose their minds because they throw away everything that was important to them, uprooting their entire life. The whole idea wouldn't hang around if people didn't see it in every day life.

The stereotypes are usually pretty stupid. "Oh, dude has a Porsche and is over 50? Mid-life Crisis." No. That's just because any male with the means to do it would drive a nice car. Period. I can't think of a single person I know who is prudent enough to at the very least not desire some form of luxury car. That one is based in logic.

Wanting a sweet car is not a crisis. Throwing away the people who loved you is, and frankly that is the one which happens far too often.

There is a man I know and love and respect, and I think he's gone to the dark side. I think this iteration of his mid-life crisis (he's really been in one for a decade or longer, to be honest) is scary. He's radically altered his appearance, quit his business that he quit his original career to build, and is incapable of being in the moment to enjoy time with his family. These aren't just signs of a guy being unhappy with his life; they are signs of a man hiding an alternate life.

If this person has cheated on his wife or really in fact doesn't "love her anymore" as the rumor mill goes, then my entire concept of reality is shattered. His wife is easily one of the best women I've ever known, ever. His children are all good kids if a bit slow on the getting through life part. I don't know how that couldn't be his number one priority any more.

This man got caught up in being a health guru. I'm all for wanting others to live in a healthy manner and improve their lives, sure. It's frightening the ego-boost and self-gratification this guy started to feel doing this, though. If you hadn't figured out by now, I know this whole family really well. They are some of the only people I communicate with on a regular basis. I've personally witnessed the entire family together in the living room, watching TV (some sporting event, usually), chatting it up and he just checks out. Sits in his spot on the couch and texts people the whole time. In fact, the only thing he tends to add to the conversation is about what some "friend" of his somewhere else in the world thinks about that game's events. The rest of his family will have conversations about him while he is present and he is oblivious to it.

I think an intervention is in order. This is at one time a God-fearing man. I bet he'd tell you he still is, but actions speak louder than words. Sunday Christians piss me off. I feel I am closer to the divine the cold, bitter, alone man that I am on Sundays than people who go to church just so they can ignore all the people hurting in their lives the rest of the week.

Since I heard this whole rumor of trouble in paradise, I haven't been able to turn off my brain except during restless sleep. I've wondered if this will happen to me. I've seen it happen to so many otherwise good men. Will I turn 55 and suddenly be so angry life didn't turn out the way I wanted I throw a bunch of people under the bus to try and satisfy my ego? The worse thought is if I'll even have anyone in my life when that time comes around to even hurt.

This one really hits close to home, guys. I'm not sure this broodiness is going to leave me any time soon. Only reason I mention that is because I'll be extra emo and analyze every little thing to be skewed against me for a bit. Example: Was planning to ask a girl in my only class Tues/Thurs to lunch afterwards, but she was quick to get out the door and never responded to my text afterward. Something this innocuous is already causing panic attacks. Let's all hope this situation ends up resolving itself in a way that doesn't cause a splintered family.

Contrast, Balance, Harmony: Fun things you can do on Flickr

You have to love assignments where you are basically told, "Find any image and talk about it." A class where I can just use what we talk about and apply it to whatever moves... me? Not just some random crap we're told to talk about?

Awesome.

First thing I did was get on Flickr and browse around. They have this nifty feature which displays the top photos from a year ago, and I ran across this image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjintjelaar/5381410226/sizes/l/in/photostream/

(I apologize for not embedding the image, but Flickr's new policy is any link to their images also goes to the site. I don't know HTML well enough to just lift the photo off the page.)

I can't take my eyes off it. I'm blown away by the fact this is an actual building and not some optical illusion penned up by an artist. The sky might be artificial (I can't really be sure, but the artist mentions he used some post-processing stuff) but either way, the building itself is somewhere in Utrecht, Netherlands.

In terms of the three key terms we're dealing with, there is great contrast between the sky and the building itself. First, we can talk about the lines of it. You have straight vertical lines on the building, with the wire-mesh looking stuff on it. When it breaks into the sky, the wavy shape created by the paneling on the building gives almost an oceanic feel when juxtaposed to the diagonal streaking clouds.

The biggest contrast comes by way of light, I think, and it's also the greatest source of harmony in the image. This wire mesh paneling on the side of the building already gives us a cross pattern simply due to the layout, but combined with how light reacts, it is hard to look away. It's almost like the center of each panel glows and radiates, growing darker toward the ends. The fact it's not solid texture but one of this meshy pattern adds extra power to that glow, as in the direct center of each panel it's still pure white, like the light is so concentrated in those areas it fills in the gaps with light.

The photo is also balanced using the tools discussed in class. There is great symmetry, as every possible thing to draw our eye to it is duplicated throughout, and the rule of thirds comes in to play with the sky taking up the top third of the image with the bottom being of the building itself. I feel like light is the focal point of this image and even that is weighted out in a balanced way, the focal point in each panel being the center and even the sides of the image both have levels of light reduced at a near identical way.

Last, we've got harmony. Thematically, it's hard to say there's anything more than simply stating "That is a pretty impressive looking building." That's why the stripping of any color in this image lends it power. The focus is on the light and the form that light highlights. The vertical line energy of this skyscraper leaps out. I suppose I don't really know what to say here other than nothing feels out of place and yet you still can't take your eyes off it.

Addendum: I'm not sure what I take out of this psychologically, socially or culturally. As I mentioned, the building is located in the Netherlands, but it's a modern enough building I think it could exist in just about any first world country. Psychologically, there is a clear sense of might that I take away from this. The building just seems important. I imagine it's owned by Big Important Firm, LLC.

American Culture: How Ignorance is a Virtue

I am a vocal person. I don't think this is in question by anyone. I voice my opinions, as I feel most people should do, simply for the sake of voicing them. I think hard about everything. I'm a very analytic person.

Which makes me incredibly unpopular on web forums.

It baffles me. The point of most web forums is to talk about something. Yet when I make a thread starting with well-though out subject matter and am able to make it concise enough to still read as conversational (seriously, no one is going to comment on your Wall of Text), I just get "cool story, bro" or "u mad?" or various other meme'd responses. It's tiring.


WARNING: LOTS OF VERY TECHNICAL TALK ABOUT A VIDEO GAME  YOU PROBABLY HAVEN'T PLAYED

For example, I've been playing an exceptional amount of Batman: Arkham City. (While I'm on the subject, get the game. It's incredible.) On the game's actual forums, in the section to talk about the game, I made a thread detailing why Catwoman is a horribly thought out character from a gameplay perspective. It didn't generate any discussion. Just was a bunch of people telling me I was stupid, or a rage-head, or whatever.

My point was to ferret out poor gameplay design. We've been talking about usability in my New Media Apps class, and I always adapt the principles to things I know more about simply to increase my own understanding of it. So, I did this with Batman's 4 playable characters in Arkham City. Obviously, Batman is the highlight of the game as he's friggin' Batman. I mean, duh. He's the focus of the game, and while you can play as Catwoman during very brief scenes in the main story, he's pretty much all you play in it. The game was designed around him and every gadget as a result has a million more gadgets and tricks he can do than the other characters, who are only playable in the various Challenge missions.

Then you have the two DLC only characters, Nightwing and Robin. (Nightwing, for those who aren't Batman fans, is the original Robin all grown up, a guy by the name of Dick Greyson. The second Robin was a dude named Jason Todd and the Joker killed him. The third Robin is a fellow by the name of Tim Drake.) We'll start with Robin as Nightwing was introduced PURELY as DLC while Robin was a character people who pre-ordered the game from some various outlet could get for doing that.

First thing you notice: No cape. That means no gliding. That means getting around the stage is a little bit harder as it limits your mobility. It's minor, but still worth noting. Secondly, his super x-ray vision mode (every character has it in some way) doesn't highlight any of the interactive scenery (grates, vents, gargoyles, etc). It's a problem he shares with Catwoman though his is a little more noticeable because everything turns a washed out grey color where it's still possible to make out the shapes of what you're walking on due to the more defined red hue of thief vision.

The reason this pisses me off is because the game trains you through the single player and the use of Batman to pay attention to different colors. Detective Mode for Batman turns everything a see-through light blueish color, and highlights everything in definable ways so you can still navigate effectively and know what you're dealing with. Grates, doors, Gargoyles, etc. are all orange (a complimentary color to Blue, so it pops) and enemies are easy to identify. Armored enemies have a different color than unarmored enemies. Armed enemies are different colored than unarmed ones. Basically, it allows you to take stock of the situation.

You can still tell where guys are with Catwoman and Nightwing, but that's it. It hinders your ability to make smart decisions. I can't tell you the number of times I waited patiently behind some wall for a lone enemy to walk passed, hoping to take him down silently. Then I can't. After mashing the Y button a couple of times, I get shot by someone who eventually takes notice (you can't sit still long in these missions) and it drops me back into regular vision. There, it's easy to tell the guy is in Armor. Can't tell that while you're in thief mode with these two characters. I can't for the life of me figure out why they removed all the same visual cues they give Batman and Robin. The difficulty it adds is entirely artificial and contradicts how the game has been training you to think.

Thing is, I still love Nightwing. They gave him some pretty boss gadgets and he still has a batclaw so he can grapplehook around with ease. The gimped vision mode is easily handled by just dropping into regular sight before you attempt to actually take anyone down. He has this electric blast thing which shocks enemies around you, which you can do two things with: Drop down from above to send them launching, or just when you're surrounded to give you enough of a window to start running away to hide again. He also has a limited use Stun Dart launcher, which is pretty self-explanatory. Other unique attack he has is his stick weapons. He'll chuck it and it bounced around to take down multiple guys at once, making it a better mid-ranged utility than a standard batarang.

Next, we've got Robin. He's got the slowest attacks in melee because he slaps people with a metal pole. It's really not all that noticable in just regular combat missions, but in the stalker mode, that extra two seconds it takes to beat a guy down is all it takes for the other dudes with guns to see you and start shooting. Annoying. They also replace the Batclaw with a Zip Kick. The difference is you go toward them instead of pulling them to you. In combat scenarios, it's tactically different but still an advantageous thing to do. In stalker missions, it just gets you killed and also lacks the functionality of pulling guys over ledges to knock them out. You can still kick dudes off ledges, but the positioning to do that is tricky, requires a lot of set up and therefore time (which in a mode where the goal is to beat it as fast as possible makes this useless), and is generally inferior to attempting to bash guys off the ledge with his other unique item, his Bullet Shield. I have two beefs with the shield: Really utilizing it means being shot at, something you don't want to ever have happen to you in a mode about sneaking around unseen to knock dudes unconscious. Secondly, the targeting on it is totally bad. Sometimes, I aim at a guy and Robin will try to tackle some invisible dude 5 feet to the left of him for some reason, which usually means the guard I was trying to knock out notices me and gets a few shots off. Remember, this entire rant is about usability: something which does not function in the manner of which you employ it is quite frustrating. Robin is in every other way just like Batman so at least there's that.

Then, we have Catwoman. For some inexplicable reason, she has a significantly smaller health pool than the other characters. I can understand this from a settings standpoint (Batman, Robin and Nightwing are all geared out superheroes using Batman's crazy funding for bullet resistant armor, blah blah) but from a gameplay perspective, it's pointless. It doesn't really add to the immersion of the game, which is the only reason I can see a designer trying to do this.

The smaller health pool is highlighted by the fact she has significantly less tools at her disposal. Nightwing and Robin both have 5 total gadgets, Batman has like 11, and Catwoman has a whopping 3. She's got her whip, and luckily that is a rather good tool. You can both just trip a guy or strip his gun from him although both accomplish the exact same thing of stopping a guy from attacking you literally the exact same amount of time. I'm not sure why they bothered to make the distinction of being able to do both. Next, we have her Bolas. You think they'd be able to trip a guy or something, but no. Functionally, they are like the Batarangs employed by every other character, except way slower. Lastly, we have some caltrops which would be useful if they didn't make a really loud noise, therefore causing guards to look for them, therefore making them sweep them away, therefore making your caltrop a waste of time that only helps enemies spot you. The only way to really "use" them is to drop them behind an enemy, because that will cause him to trip and fall over. Bolas accomplish the exact same thing, however, and have a nifty auto-aim feature so you can't miss like you can with the caltrops.

The only thing she's got going for her is she is more fleet of foot than the other characters. It never really comes into play to help you survive, though, simply because she dies in two hits while everyone else can take around 5.

To top it off, earning the medals on challenge missions for her are significantly harder than any other character. For those who haven't played this game, the Predator missions are basically single rooms with a bunch of armed guards, and you need to take them out silently as quick as possible. The thing that makes them challenging is it forces you to do 3 specific tasks in order to earn medals. They range in things you're probably going to do anyway (take out a guard with a silent takedown, for example) to the stage-specific (knock a guy off the trains on the subway map) to the downright absurd (blow up a single wall panel into three different enemies like you have to do on the museum stage as Robin.) There's usually one medal on every map which requires a lot of set up when it comes to manipulating the enemies into going where you want. It's very easy with Batman as he has a Sonic Batarang which gets the nearest guard to wander over to it and investigate it's loud beeping. It's also fairly easy with Robin because he's got access to a remote controlled shuriken thingy which you can use to punch enemies around a stage. Nightwing would have a helluva time with it, but none of his challenges (literally not a single one) involve you needing to take out more than one guy at a time with any attack. Hit, yes, take out, no. You can do all the ones which require you to throw and bounce his Escrima Sticks into 3 guys by taking out any other guard and then patiently waiting above til the unconscious body is discovered by a patrol, because one guy will always call 2 more dudes to any discovered unconscious body. Same goes for the one mission which requires you to drop on top of 3 guys at once with the electrical blast.

Catwoman needs some really tricky positioning thing on every stage due to the fact she has a much smaller selection of medals to even earn. And she has no tools to really help her get enemies to go where you need them to go. Caltrops rarely even work and even then, it just trips a guy for a couple seconds, so it doesn't really help you maneuver them into position. Bolas just knock guys over or alert them to look near wherever you threw them from, but the they resume the patrolling path they were already taking. Her whip, also, just trips people, and it's short range so you can't exactly do anything with it other than take out dudes you are already very close to.

END OF NERD TALK
In summation, she dies the fastest, has the least amount of ways to prevent her from taking damage, and has the most absurd, difficult-to-accomplish medals to earn. She is the worst possible character in literally every single possible way. Her usability is extremely limited. I cannot for the life of me figure out who thought it was a good idea to roll up the worst possible qualities in every aspect of the game and stick them on one character, and expect people to enjoy playing her as much as any of the other characters.

It has to be a lack of foresight. Has to be.

This all works back around to my original point: People don't take the time to think about things any more. When someone else shows an analytic perspective, they would rather just troll them. Oh durr hurr, you used big words so you must be a nerd! You... you nerd!

Seriously, Rocksmith is the coolest "video game" ever.

Can I gush for a moment?

Of course I can. It's my damn blog.

I've been playing Ubisoft's excellent, excellent Rocksmith more or less non-stop since mom got it for me as a Christmas gift. Link to their website is here, so I'm going to assume you click it and watch their intro video to get a hint of what it's like.

Part of the appeal is being on a console system, but calling it a "game" is a misnomer. It's a guitar trainer, utilizing something no other guitar lesson teacher trainer person or program can ever give you: immediate audio-visual feedback. The game more or less turns your home entertainment system into a glorified amp for any electric guitar, including an actual amp mode which lets you throw on up to 3 custom pedals to change the sound. (Significantly cheaper than actually going out and buying a ton of pedals!)

Let me re-iterate that: ANY electric guitar. If you've got a quarter-inch plug in for your guitar, you can use it with the game's cable. It's got a quarter-inch on one side and a USB plug on the other. No special guitar needed. If you've got a $600 dollar sexy Gibson something or other, use it. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

The way it teaches you songs is pretty intuitive, as well. The better you play, the more of the song it throws your way. We'll use the first song the game throws your way as a sample: Satisfaction by Rolling Stones. The basic riff of the song is simple going 2-2---245-5-54-42-2 on your second string (I really need to memorize which all the strings are in their default basic tuning). It'll just have you play the 2 and the 5 beginning each segment. Then it throws in the 4 on you. Then after you prove you have that part down, it throws in the hammer-ons and pull-offs.  I am relatively certain the game tracks if you're playing correctly even if it doesn't show the notes to you, because songs where I already knew how to play them leveled up a lot faster even when I "missed" notes than songs I played perfectly but just the notes it showed me on screen. Perhaps it's just rhythm and timing were better so it just seemed that way, but it's worth mentioning my observations either way.

The song selection is pretty awesome. I haven't encountered anything which has made my ears bleed yet, something Rock Band definitely struggles with at times. (Seriously, no more death metal on the basic disc please!) Currently I'm working on a Kings of Leon song called Use Somebody. I'm like 97% on the song and I've got all the segments maxed out. Makes me happy. It's the type of song I think I could sing while playing too, so that's cool. It's also Kings of Leon so girls will squee if I could actually play it well (or so I imagine.)

Lastly, there's a bunch of mini-games to help with various aspects of guitar-playing. The first one is called "Ducks" and it's basically a guitar version of Asteroids. Little ducks come down lanes designated by frets and depending on the color, you pluck that string and that note to fire a little laser to shoot them down. Starts off easy, then gets really fast to the point you can't go look down at your hands to find the right spot and expect to be able to look up again without missing several other ducks. The trainer for scales is pretty straightforward, simply having a little guy ride along on the note and if you don't play the next one in time, you dude falls off. The more you play in a row, the faster it comes to you. My personal favorite is Chord Zombies, where zombies rise up in different chord shapes and you have to play that chord to shoot them and keep them from eating your brains.

There are some pretty glaring flaws I hope get patched soon. For starters, there's a "lives" thing in the trainer modes for specific segments of songs. That to me seems kind of superfluous. It'd be better if it just repeated that segment over and over til you got it, because I mean that's what anyone would do if the game was present or not. Kicking you back out after you fail a segment 5 times in a row is counter-productive. I've seen enough hate toward that particular idea on Ubisoft's forums I think it's going to be axed whenever a future patch hits.

Most glaring as a flaw (and it's something you can't code around) is HDTV audio lag. If you are like me running through just an HDTV, there's about a half-second delay in the audio between when you hit the note and it comes through the speakers. When you're really jamming to a song, you don't really notice it but while learning a song, it's frustrating. Apparently hooking audio from your Xbox of PS3 directly into home theater speakers solves this problem but that's another $30 cable and however much more on speakers if you don't already own some. The other solution is to simply use an old standard definition TV, but then you have to deal with that ugly blur from yesteryear we have almost already forgot existed as a society.

You guys all know me by now: I don't like assigning a number to my game reviews. Numbers are so arbitrary and fluctuate on the day (I know people who give 8's to games they like significantly better than games they've given 9's to.) For the purpose the game was intended for, it's near perfect. Anyone with a guitar and a modern console should at the very least look into it. It's cheaper than a month of guitar lessons and arguably more effective!

What is Beauty?

Fun times, all 3 people who actually read my blog beforehand: I get to use it for two classes this semester! For assignments and everything! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!


First thing we were asked in Visual Communications is to define what we appreciate as beauty.

Boy, that's an unfair starting point. Haven't poets and theologians and artists and philosophers been arguing what beauty is since the dawn of recorded man? It's a good thing there's the caveat of what I find attractive, because we could be here all day otherwise.

As opposed to just 23 and a half hours.

The first order of business for me is to make one of my famous proclamations. As anyone who's into English as a language in the slightest degree can tell you, the most powerful thing in our language is the simple declarative sentence. So here it goes:

Beauty is.

I realize that's rather abstract and vague and grandiose, but so then is my concept of beauty. Everything is in it's own way lovely. I suppose the only extra information I need to add is "as long as it is not destructive." And I suppose even then, that's not entirely true. As a fan of MythBusters, some of my favorite things are large explosions, taking matter and then scattering it elsewhere in tiny, small pieces.

At the end of the day, out of all the things that interest me most, the thing I always come back to is women. Am I sometimes misogynistic? Yes. Am I sometimes resentful toward the fairer sex? Yes. I am many unfavorable things in the subject of gender relations, but at the end of the day, I believe I see deeper into people than they see into themselves. I have a gift of summing up a person's character upon moments of meeting them. I am very rarely wrong in these assertions. What this has to do with women: I see marvel in just about every woman I know. A get up and go attitude, or a desire to maintain pleasant physical appearances, or the thirst for knowledge, or motherliness, or maybe just the depth of soul behind beautiful eyes. Sexist? Probably. I prefer to think of myself as the hopeless romantic jaded by my own failures.

I also find beauty in grand schemes coming together. It's probably why I'm such a huge fan of football as opposed to the other major sports. Most people probably just see the big pass or the great run. I see the blocking, the distractions in alternate route-running, the simple play calling, the way that team drafts new players. The whole thing. It's all amazing and wonderful to me. It's why I love the music I do. Often discordant, it still works when tied together with a funky bass groove or an off-beat syncopated drum beat.

Oddly enough, I also appreciate simple. I know that seems like a direct opposite of what I just listed, and I suppose to a great degree it is so. I suppose we'll classify this dichotomy as "harmony." Not bland. Not exquisite. Just right. I suppose an example of this is my taste in clothing. If I could wear the same thing every day, it'd be my brown chord pants and a plain white T. I don't need patterns, but there is just enough texture in chords so it's not flat. Both are rather neutral colors, too. I like earth tones. You won't see me wearing bright oranges or yellows as I prefer darker greens, clay reds and brown.

I could go on and on, I'm sure. Let me just sum my tastes up this way: I have many of them.

The world is going to end, and I'm upbeat

I've got to tell you, the feeling is kind of neat.
A new look on life, my god is it sweet.
A part of me feels complete.

Okay, now that the bad song writer is out of me, I do feel pretty good lately. Yay upbeat blog posts!

I think a large part of it has to do with coming out of a really bad depression. My closest internet of the last two years turned out to secretly loathe me the whole time. One of my only real life friends ended that friendship Christmas night when after her boyfriend raged out and punched her in the face, she didn't understand why I was upset she'd rather get stoned than spend time in a loving environment.

Something in me snapped when she snapped at me. I just didn't care anymore. About any of it. I am a good guy. I was doing a good thing for someone. I've been doing good things for people for a long time, and I've never got any recognition for it. And you know what? I realized that's fine. I was doing it for the hopeful return of their love and affection. Now I am just doing it because it's the right thing to do. People don't have to recognize it any more. I am okay with being unappreciated.

And it's liberating. I feel like Salieri at the end of Amadeus: I am the king of mediocrity. I don't look at it as a bad thing any more. I'm capable at whatever I do. Great? No. Good? Yes. I'm never going to be that number one choice, and this realization is not sad. It seems like something I should be sad about, but I am not. I just feel like I've finally accepted my place in life, and everyone who doesn't want to be a part of my good life can just go ahead and not be in it. Their damn loss.

Maybe I secretly really do "hate women"

That's a terrifying realization to myself. I have made that comment as a casual aside a million times in the past in order to vent my own frustrations about my failures in the dating world, but maybe it really is true. Maybe it's not the frustrations of a good-hearted guy down on his luck as I view myself, but the honest truth.

I've spent the last hour or so reading articles dealing with women voicing opinions in the internet and the amount of crap they have to deal with. Specifically, Margaret Robertson's post I found through Kotaku and one she mentions immediately in that post by a guy named Mark Sorrell.

And I feel like crap right now. I'm not the type of guy that ever sends unsolicited messages on X-Box or any other gaming medium targetting women. Or anyone, really. In fact, the only messages I send on X-Box Live other than ones to friends have been to opponents in a game I particularly enjoyed playing against. Whether I won or lost, when the competition was good and friendly, I make it a point to send a "GG dude! Helluva game" message or something along those lines. I believe we need as a culture to make a more concentrated effort to display sportsmanship online as we would in person.

But I know I've said derogatory things before. Just the other day, I was playing Left 4 Dead 2 with one of my only real life friends and a few people he knows. One of them was a girl, and immediately the flirtatious side of me came out. It wasn't in a direct way (I've learned better) but I was monitoring what I said an awful lot more than I usually do and was making a conscious effort to be more witty and funny than I usually am. I believe I made a lot of jokes about how the only type of women I could get were the really fat, blimp-like ones.

It was funny in context, but now that I'm looking at it out of context, I'm mortified by the sexism I've displayed. It's subconscious. I have a really low opinion of myself normally, so the way I self-deprecate is by making fun of obese women, by implying they are low enough on the worthiness meter in society even I could get with them and it would be welcome on their parts.

I'm better than that. God I feel so awful right now, but I guess I need to take heart in that. Hold on to this self-anger and utilize it to be a better man going forward, right? That's all anyone can do when they've been faced with an uncomfortable truth about themselves. So what I'm doing, with my eyes open, is telling myself I am better than that so when the opportunity to actually put it on display arizes, I'll go "I am better than that" and hold myself to higher standards.

At the end of the day, this is all I've ever really asked of anyone. It might seem like I ask a lot of people, because I'm a very opinionated a-hole most the time. But I'm ultimately an extremely forgiving individual. The person I whined about in my last post? I can legitimately say I hate her right now and am glad she's out of my life. But would I forgive her in a heartbeat if she decided to actually mend this rift? Absolutely. I'd  be wary for awhile, but I am an trusting enough person to say what the hell and go for it. I suppose the reason I am so hurt by her decision is she is not the same way.

I am getting off-topic: Let's talk about women on the internet for a second. Did you know women who express opinions for a living get hate mail based entirely upon their gender and nothing about the contents of their work? I had no idea. And some of the stories I've heard go as far as to say they've been mailed their own address (not publicly listed on any profile they were aware of owning online) along with vivid descriptions of horrific sexual fantasies these nutjobs want to carry out on said opinionated women. I'd spoken very, very briefly with my friend Jill about this, as she is a gamer into the Modern Warfare franchise specifically. According to her, she gets hate mail or sexual requests every round she speaks through the mic.

Considering how emotionally twisted I get from some of the things that occur to me in my life, I can't even imagine. If you're a male gamer, and you're reading this, I encourage you to examine your own behavior. Ignore what you perceive as the norm for a second. Let's throw away stupid ideals such as "It cannot be changed." We're going to Glen Beck this and ONLY talk about you. If my post gets even just one other person to examine their behavior toward other people, then this was the best 20 minutes (give or take) I've spent in the last month.

I suppose from an entirely selfish standpoint, I want it to be acceptable for "normal" girls to play video games. Let's face it; the perception is only nerdy girls or "fat, ugly" girls or lesbians or to sum it all up, "fringe personality" girls play video games when the truth is everyone in today's society plays them.

Anyway, I'll finish ranting about this topic later. Gotta run!

No, seriously, I hate that I love women.

This is probably the most misogynistic thing you'll read all day, and I apologize about that. I could pretend I was politically correct, but y'all know me. I leave politicking to people with no souls.

So, anyone who knows me or followed my blog when I originally started it knows there's a girl in northern California I care about a lot. The relationship has been entirely long distance, and I recognize that's probably weird to a lot of people I care as much about this person as I do because of that fact. Thing is, I didn't expect her to question it.

That stings on a level I have a hard time understanding. Let me go and explain the entire situation as best I see it.

About two weeks before the new Call of Duty came out, she text me saying "I'm bored!" I told her "I'm just chilling playing games on Xbox with some friends of mine. Join the party and come chat with us?" So she did. And things went pretty well for awhile. She got along with my friends. That made me happy, and hey it was a way to actually talk to her rather than texting all the time.

Fast forward to the release of the game. We all played it quite a bit that first week, and I'm a highly competitive guy. When I struggle, I get whiney. I'm not proud of it and it's something I work on constantly. However, it's super difficult when everyone on your own friend's list is harping on you. Friendly ribbing is part of the game, and for the most part I took it well and it didn't really bother me. But when it did start to bother me, I got vocal about it. One night, I told them "Okay seriously guys, enough is enough. Could you please tone it down and maybe not rip on me quite so much for a bit?" After about 20 seconds of silence, I just said "Fuck it, I'm done for tonight."

Then in classic brainless hurt emotional wreck Casey fashion, I shot her a text saying something to the extent, "I expect that kind of behavior from them, because they are just video game friends and I don't really know them. Plus, they occasionally throw in 'Just kidding' or similar messages to lessen the blow when it starts to feel really personal. But you? I expect you to at least acknowledge when I ask a request." She didn't respond.

She also didn't respond for about 3 days when I tried to hash things out with her.

She also didn't respond on X-Box Live anymore. She started inviting the other guys to a party, but set it to invite only and no one ever threw me an invite. Yes, they were all playing the game. Yes, I wanted to get in and play with them.

This goes on for like a week, then I get word from the girlfriend of one of these guys (this particular guy and his girlfriend are real world friends of mine from Las Vegas) she overheard the Cali girl, and I quote, "talking shit about me." When I asked further, apparently she told these other guys she didn't know why I cared about her as much as I did because it's all been long distance, and that I was a stalker, and things to that extent.

Wow, right? Yeah, I'm a stalker. Before all this drama went down, we were both talking about what Christmas gifts we were going to send each other. I'm pretty sure she in fact started that whole conversation. There's absolutely no reason for me to care as much about her when I was there for her to talk to into the long wee hours of the night and morning when her marriage was failing. Another fact: she told me I was the first person she called when the official decision to split from her husband went down, even before her own mother whom she lives with.

There are so many little things like that I can point to in this 2 year relationship. I'm pretty sure at one time she cared about me. So I don't understand how anyone who ever cared about another could just shut down so completely when the other is trying to find out what the hell is going on. I didn't hear from her in a week, she wouldn't return texts or phone calls or messages on other online services, and then I start hearing things which seem to confirm my paranoia? I think anyone in that situation would be trying to find out what the hell was happening. If it was reality as it seemed in my head, the situation was extremely fucked up. She basically stole my group of X-Box friends (by the way, none of them really talk to me anymore and I still don't know why they suddenly shut down toward me too) and then said some really hurtful things which suggest she'd been feeling resentful of my attachment to her for quite some time.

Finally, after leaving a few voice mails, she text me back saying she wasn't going to talk to me anywhere because I believed some "mystery source rumors." She wouldn't actually talk to me, but would argue with me via text. I hate that. When things are shitty, I want to TALK. When you can hear the other person, it makes it so much less painful because when reading the types of things that come out in arguments, they always sound way harsher than the vocal inclinations would let a person understand.

During the course of the argument, I felt like she wasn't directly responding to any of the things I had to say, and was just turning everything around on me. I'm the badguy for wanting answers. I'm the badguy for not being able to read her body languages from a thousand miles away to just inherently understand she wanted to be left alone. She didn't understand there's a responsibility people have to say the very simple things like "I want to be left alone today, I am not feeling well" or whatever. Like I wouldn't understand that. I don't understand the silent treatment, especially in this case because I still don't see what I did wrong.

Well, up til the argument came to a head. I may have accused her of treating me like her ex-husband and another guy who liked her a lot that both started treating her really poorly, and that this type of treatment is what leads people to do shit like that.

Do I feel I am wrong in this assessment? No. Should I have said it? Probably not. But then again, she can point out my flaws whenever she wants and I'm just supposed to grin and bear it and laugh it off or solemnly swear to be better, but if I point out any of her flaws, goddamn it I'm on her shitlist along with her ex-husband, this other guy, a former "best friend" female friend of hers, and a few other people she likely will never talk to again and will retain anger and hatred toward for years to come.

It's been two weeks since this all went down, and it still stings and makes no sense so I try not to think about it as best I can.

AND IF YOU'RE WONDERING WHY I AM LEVYING THIS SITUATION ON THE ENTIRE FEMALE POPULACE:

I've tried so hard the last two weeks to get out of my house to spend time with just a female friend. No agenda. Just want to spend time with the fairer sex. Shit, I'd spend time with anyone. I need out of my house. The only social interaction I've had recently circles around video games and football. Not that I mind either of those, but occasionally I need something deeper even if it's just delving into the problems of another person. I've sent a gajillion texts to gajillion people who normally respond when I try to say hello and absolutely nothing. People are going to blame it on it being near Finals, but really? You expect me to buy that? Go observe people in the wild for two friggin' minutes. Everyone checks their phones constantly, whether they are in conversation with friends or not, and usually clack out a reply. If any of them actually responded, I'd believe whatever they slung my way. Not out of ignorance, but because I believe in the naive ideal friends should trust their friends unless given a reason to distrust them.

And so I've had to sit with this guilt and anger and frustration of being alone, of losing one of my best friends I've ever had, of losing a girl I love, alone. I have had literally no outlet to even try and feel better about things. I haven't had a single day since where I haven't felt shitty about myself, because I've had no one to tell me otherwise. You can try and tell me all you want I should just buck up and tell myself I'm a good person and just role with it, but I'm too observant to believe those lies. Good, worthwhile people don't sit alone in their house for two weeks at a time when they are trying as hard as they can to get out and socialize. Good, worthwhile people have people who love them and seek them out to talk or do things with.

I'm a giving person, and no one wants anything I have to offer. This is the source of my endless low self-worth.

Fuhbaw!

I LUV FUHBAW!

Seriously, I can't get enough of it. I feel blessed to have a teacher as cool as Phil Tuckett to bounce ideas back off when it comes to my thoughts on teams. For those who don't know, Phil Tuckett is more or less the man at Dixie State College when it comes to the film department. He worked at NFL Films for 30+ years and won 30 Emmy's during his time there so the guy knows his crap. I remember week 3, I asked him what his thoughts were on the Lions and he goes "I don't buy them because I don't buy their quarterback." Lo and behold, like unto a great prophecy on high, Matt Stafford has been obliterated the last couple of games. Defenses figured the guy out and yet again, he's proven to be brittle as he's got injuries piling up.

As I've kind of missed two weeks of predictions now, I'm not going to keep track of what's in the past and we'll just talk about next week.

PREDICTIONS WEEK 11

NYJ @ DEN:
I think this is a perplexing matchup. On paper, the Jets should crush. On paper, though. In actuality, I think Denver has a fair shot at winning this one. Jets defense hasn't played well on the road. The only game they won on the road all year is recently in Buffalo. Every other one, they've given up 30+ points. The Jets are coming off a loss on a short week against a team with an unorthodox offense. I am going out on a limb and I think Denver wins by 3. I don't buy either quarterback's arm, but I buy Tebow's legs at the very least.


CAR @ DET:
Again, I think this is an intriguing match-up. Carolina just can't seem to break the hump this year, while Detroit can't seem to break the hump as a franchise. Detroit HAS to win this game to stay in the playoff hunt and still have people consider them a contender. I'm making the emotional pick and saying Detroit wins by 7+. Luckily for me, it's also an intelligent pick simply because Detroit still has real weapons on both sides of the ball while Carolina is just high-powered offense.

OAK @ MIN:
Minnesota is so bad this year, and it's nonsensical. They still have fantastic weapons on the team, but can't seem to win a game. Oakland wins comfortably. The final score will be much closer than the actual game's spirit.

DAL @ WAS:
Geez, Dallas. Figure it out. One week, you get shut down completely by a bad team then you show up the following week with a QB performance of near perfection. It's so hard to pick Dallas games because the team is as Jekyll and Hyde as any in the last decade. Dallas should win this game. Should, being the key word. Washington looked good for a few weeks there early, then Shanahan did what he does best by micromanaging and bullying his own team to the point they quit on him.

BUF @ MIA:
Miami is streaking? Is that possible? The team has looked pretty decent since Matt Moore started. Give that guy some credit, people. He's played super well this year. It's revitalized Reggie Bush, who has looked pretty strong the last two weeks as well. And Buffalo is doing what Buffalo does well as a franchise, which is get too excited by a hot start and then quit playing well. I'm taking Miami in this one. Until Fitzpatrick can prove to me the early season win streak wasn't a fluke, I'm still not buying him as a QB.

JAC @ CLE:
Jacksonville has played the AFC North pretty well all year long. Cincinnati beat them in week 5 but the game was fairly close til the end from what I recall. The Steelers had an excellent first half against them but couldn't score again the second (luckily for me, it was still enough to win). They actually demolished Baltimore in what was the ugliest game all year. Now they are facing the worst team in the division. Jacksonville better win this one. Cleveland is awful. Prove you have the makings of at least a professional QB, Gabbert.

CIN @ BAL:
Baltimore only shows up during divisional games.  All 3 of their losses are to bad teams (Tennessee, Jacksonville and Seattle) and nearly lost the matchup against a 4th bad team in Arizona. Yet, they crushed the Jets, Texans and Steelers (and squeaked out a second one against them, those bastards.) This is another one of those on-paper matchups, Baltimore should win by a landslide. They've also got a couple bonus points from me for 1) being at home and 2) coming off a confusing loss. Baltimore has to win this game, right? Right? I'm still cheering for the Bengals though.

TB @ GB:
Thank god, an easy game to predict. Green Bay by a landslide. Do I even really need to explain it at this point? Aaron Rodgers and his bionic arm are unstoppable this year. Even if they give up 40 points, the team still wins. It's incredible.

SEA @ STL:
Oh man. This is tied with the Jacksonville/Cleveland game for Game of the Weak. Part of me doesn't even want to put in a pick for this game because, I mean, who cares? They are both so far out of first, it doesn't matter. If Seattle wins out the rest of the season and San Francisco loses the rest of the way, they still just barely win the division (and we all don't think that's going to happen.) I'm taking Seattle in this one just because why not.

ARI @ SF:
San Francisco just might be the best team in football this year and are returning home to a crowd who've been clamoring for a winning team since Jeff Garcia left. San Francisco wins by a bajillion. As much as I've been saying Arizona should have started Skelton as early as last year, that team isn't good enough to win this one.

TEN @ ATL:
Tennessee has the most overpaid athlete in the league this year. Period. Chris Johnson still hasn't got it going and it's time we all faced the fact he won't. Atlanta may have had some questionable playcalling this last week in overtime, but they are still playing decent football and have had the opportunity to win games against good teams. Atlanta controls the clock with a strong run game and therefore wins in a close one.

SD @ CHI:
Chicago is looking the best they have since Jay Cutler arrived, and they sort of made it to the NFC Championship game last year. If they keep up their current level of play, it's a scary team. They have the best linebacking core in the league. Chicago wins in a second-half come-from-behind victory. San Diego is going to look like a great team for about two quarters, then will choke. Phillip Rivers will still appear cheerful and unworried in post-game interviews. At some point, San Diego, relying mentally on past success late in the year is going to bite you in the ass. Oh wait, it already has.

PHI @ NYG:
The reason this matchup is interesting to me is because both these teams have this one Achilles' Heel. It's just bitten Philadelphia harder than New York this year. Both teams, when playing mistake-free football, are among the elitist of the elite. But they never just have a "kind of" bad game. It's always a total travesty of an effort, or it's a really awesome team we're watching. The Giants are going to win, as well as win the division. Eagles are just dysfunctional this year and with the whole fractured ribs thing Vick has yet again, it's just a bad situation for them. I say they should just go ahead and start Vince Young because I think they'll figure out some of their problems if they do that.

KC @ NE:
The thing a lot of people don't realize about this matchup is just how much of the Kansas City staff is made up of backroom personnel from the New England dynasty of the early 21st Century. If any bad team is going to make a surprising win against a good team, it's this game. Still, New England so rarely loses at home there's no way they lose to a bad team on Monday Night Football. Probably the second easiest pick of the week.

A week later and a year older

First off, sorry for not having anything at all last week. There's a myriad of reasons, the biggest probably being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Stupid video games sucking away my soul.

The next biggest reason? I get seasonal depression real bad, and I think the catalyst for that is my birthday. Which happens to be today. That's right; I was born November 14th, 1985. Why is November 14th a funny day to have a birthday? Well let's do some basic math. Birthdays inherently involve being born, which means conception had to happen... So 9 months prior to November? We get February. Tee hee hee, my dad had a very good Valentine's Day in '85.

Anywho, I know most people find birthdays to be a reason to celebrate. It's not that I don't TRY to. Maybe that's part of the problem? I don't know. I just know I feel lonelier on my birthday than any other day of the year. It's a day I feel like people should say hi at the very least, and yet I usually sit alone in my house crying. I try every year to do something to bring me out of that funk and it just never works. Last year, I went mini-golfing with some friends and none of those people I even keep in contact anymore (though not from lack of trying on my part, trust me.) This year, I had a "party" on Saturday. Out of the 40 or so people I contacted, maybe 10 responded, and 4 showed up (a 5th would have but he's sick, so I wish him well. The flu sucks, especially when it's this cold outside.) 2 of those 4 were there for maybe 10 minutes just to say hi.

Now I don't want to mitigate what it means to me that these friends actually showed up. It means a lot, and they've been on my mind pretty much every second since. It's still very telling that I live literally across the street from campus, walking distance from a place everyone goes to every day, and couldn't get more than 4 "friends" to show up for my birthday. I know a lot of people I feel like I'm on friendly terms with drive past my house daily. Is it really that much of a hassle to say hello and offer any sort of message that conveys the meaning "I care about you!"?

Blah. Time to go shoot some more russians.  We'll talk football later this week.

It's the Time of the Season for Lov-- I mean Gaming

November is the greatest month in the year, as far as I'm concerned. Why? Here's a couple reasons.

First, candy is wicked cheap because all the convenience and grocery stores overstock it for Halloween and need to get rid of it to stock Christmas items, ASAP. Time to stock up on Reese's Pieces.

Secondly, my birthday. I entered this world November 14th, 1985. It'll be 26 years coming up shortly and while that makes me feel ancient considering everyone else I know was done with school and had a wife and kids at this age while I can't seem to find a job nor a woman who'll touch lips to mine. Still, birthdays are fun and y'all are welcome to come to my party next weekend.

Lastly, THE VIDEO GAMES, MAN! I've been interested in this particular hobby for quite some time and also worked part time at a video game store who shall remain nameless as I don't want to ever drum up business for those blood-sucking garbage feeders. Something I've noticed is the yearly cycle of video game releases. January through March, games trickle through and you tend to see a lot of family titles or blockbuster RPGs. That's when your Mass Effects and Final Fantasies typically come out. Summer, you start getting your action-platformers and there's always a surprise indie game to come out which blows everyone away. August and September tend to be slower simply because the really, really big name companies are still pushing for Holiday releases. 

October is when things start to heat up. That's when you get established franchises (or franchises game developers are confident will become established) which are generally well recieved but are not nearly as big as some of their competition. Hence Battlefield 3 being released in the later end of the month. It's when companies have to get their product out before the other guys just to try to draw away business.

Then we get to November. Every single year, the first two Tuesdays of that month are chock full of longly developed sexiness. Modern Warfare 3 is this year's big one, but in years prior we had The Orange Box from Valve, Dragon Age: Origins, other Call of Duty titles, etc. Go look it up. Seriously. November is kind of a big deal.

I plan on picking up Modern Warfare 3 next Tuesday. I am incredibly anti-Activision but at the end of the day, we play online games to play with friends. As much as I wish they'd all jump on the Battlefield bandwagon (I'm a much bigger fan of that franchise), the friends I have are all into Call of Duty. So, I'm just going to bite the bullet. I have a ton of games to play online, but absolutely none of my friends have the same titles. It's the curse of the indie gamer. We really enjoy things which challenge your mind, expand your gaming realities, and at the end of the day offer something new and unique. Clearly something the common denominator of consumers doesn't seem to really care for.

C'est la vie. Expect a review of it by Thursday. I'll tell you whether to pick it up for save your cash, assuming you haven't bought it as well already.

NFL Mid-Season: Where I was right and where I was dead wrong.

So, week 8 totally just happened in the NFL and it couldn't have been more exciting to me. I feel so validated on my pre-season picks. It's like I know something.

Let's talk division winners I initially had going into the season. In the AFC, I had the Jets, Steelers, Texans and Raiders. In the NFC, I had Dallas, Green Bay, New Orleans and Seattle. As turd sandwiches, I had a few teams listed that have turned out to be quite good (Cincinnati and Buffalo being the two big ones.) So far, I think a lot of those are holding up.

• AFC East:

Jets, okay they look bad at times. They are starting to gel now, though, which is the right time to do so. Patriots have just an utterly soft defense, too. The Bills with their surprising year look awesome. Biggest reason being their O is actually pretty good, and while they have some deficiencies on defense, they manage to get a lot of turnovers and that is how you win games. If I was going to say which team takes that division here at the midmark, I think I'm going Buffalo. They have the easiest schedule remaining of any of those teams, and I am a fan of opportunistic teams.

• AFC North:

The AFC North is looking like the new AFC division to beat. The Browns are surprisingly bad, but everyone else is great. Not saying the Browns were supposed to be good this year, but definitely better than they have played. Cincinnati is turning heads, though. They are using the prototypical gameplan for AFC North teams: Strong run game, at least one legit passing option, great defense. And, they are flying way under the radar. Steelers looked pretty bad early but Big Ben is playing out of his mind the last few weeks so they are back to the form I thought we'd see this season. The Ravens are a head-scratcher, though. Their record is good, but man that team looks terrible the last two weeks. They dropped just a mystifying loss to the Jaguars on MNF and by all means should have lost to the Cardinals this past week. That offense looks straight inept at times, and it boggles my mind because I like their QB, love their running back, and am a huge fan of at least one of their receivers (Anquan "I broke my face and returned the next week" Boldin). Still have the Steelers winning the division, though.

• AFC South

The AFC South is a mess, aren't they? Texans dropped a game or two in weird fashion, but when they look good, they look great. Tennessee was looking decent for awhile but then became what I thought they'd be, and that's an inept offense. The Colts are looking just... abysmal. It's amazing to me how terrible that team is just because number 18 isn't under center. Not much to say about the Jags, either, other than how their QB looks like the QB from "Remember The Titans." Texans should still win that division and get their first playoff berth as a franchise, so I'm excited for them.

• AFC West

The AFC West got a whole lot more interesting after this MNF debacle. Remember how I said the Chargers should win this division on paper? Well, paper it is. Team is choking hardcore, and my boy Phillip is in large part to blame. Yeah the rest of the team is looking poor too but he's still the one throwing bad passes and making mind-numbing mental errors like the one that cost them this week's game. The Raiders I think are the best team in this division with a huge asterisk now that Jason Campbell is down for the year with a broken collar bone. They better pray to whatever dark and mysterious gods that organization has worshiped the last 40 years Carson Palmer can get back to football playing form soon, because Boller is a joke. They'd be better with JaMarcus Russel than that hack. (Okay, not really.) And let's talk Chiefs for a second. I am baffled by how they looked like the most legit bad team in the league through the first three weeks. They didn't just lose; they got decimated. And now they've rattled off 4 wins in a row to be in that three way tie for the division lead. Totally amazing and that locker room better be proud of themselves right now. And I don't even wanna talk about the Denver Tebows right now because ugh.

• NFC East

Switching conference, I think the most interesting division in the NFC has got to be the NFC East. Redskins looked like they were contenders early for reals, and have totally collapsed the last few weeks. I blame Shanahan for benching Grossman after one bad game, which I think sends the wrong message to the locker room. The Eagles went on an impressive 4 game losing streak but are playing the way we figured they would lately, with an absolutely dominant performance against the next team, Dallas. Dallas can't finish, and in this last week, couldn't even friggin' begin. I am selling my Cowboys stock and I wish I hadn't bought any in the first place because eww, Cowboys. The only team playing consistently inconsistent is the Giants. Eli Manning is looking really good lately, despite having third stringers to throw to. Now that his brother is out for an indefinite time, he's stepped up into the spotlight. Oddly enough, I'm sticking with the Eagles. I know they looked epic bad for awhile but the win against Dallas was beautiful, and a statistic I think shouldn't be overlooked is their offense is the best in terms of yards per game in the NFL. In fact, they are on a record-breaking pace. Their Achilles' heel has been turnovers. They don't turn the ball over, they win and win big.

• NFC North

The NFC North is looking just like I imagined. Green Bay is tearing heads off people and sucking the gushing blood like freakish vampires, and Detroit is proving they can hang. Chicago is looking pretty decent, too, although they are a very Jekyll-Hyde team. One week, they rely on Cutler and get stomped. Then they rely on Forte, which ends up giving Cutler the opportunity to shine. Seems pretty obvious to me: Run the damn ball. The Vikings looked terrible til they made that change at QB. I'm suddenly a fan of Christian Ponder. I didn't think he'd fly well in the NFL but kid is legit. He's got an arm and has game presence I didn't think he'd pull off. Too bad for the Vikings they're in an inescapable hole.

• NFC South

The NFC South is just bizarre. One week, every team looks phenominal, and the next to a team look god-awful. How do you lose to Rams? How does that even happen? With a back-up QB no less. Still, New Orelans might have those weird bad mojo games like they did this week, but I expect them to bounce back and fully expect the other teams to stay middle-piddle-fiddles.

• NFC West

That just leaves the NFC West. All I have to say is San Francisco. Where the hell has that organization been the last decade? Gotta love their head coach. They didn't even really add any new talent, and are playing just exceptional football. They are good at all three phases of the game right now, and Alex Smith is playing like he was at BYU, how people expected he should have played the last couple of years. About time he lived up to his potential. Every other team is trying to figure out how to lose games fast enough to draft better quarterbacks, so I'm pretty sure San Fran is a lock to win that division and potentially a second seed when the playoffs roll around. I'm impressed.

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As for my picks last week, I went 11/13, and one of the ones I missed I'm pretty sure everyone did in that stunner upset the Rams pulled off. My other lost pick was because of just an inexcusable fumble to close out regulation, so I could have easily been totally correct this week.

Here comes the part you've all been waiting for: My picks for next week!

PREDICTIONS WEEK 9

Kansas City over Miami - Pretty easy call here. I doubt I pick Miami to win a game. They'll still manage it somewhere along the lines, but man they are pretty awful. I think Kansas City keeps their win streak up at least one more week.

Houston over Cleveland - Not a surprise, again. Cleveland is such a mess. Peyton Hillis going all diva and not playing til he gets a restructured contract is the death of that team. I am also really disappointed in Colt McCoy because he is just not playing worth a damn this year. He can't throw more than 20 yards downfield.

Atlanta over Indianapolis - This might be Indy's first win, but as I've stated previously I'm not going to take them in a game til they can actually put together a complete game. I'm still selling my Falcons stock, but I mean the Clots are just terrible.

Seattle over Dallas - I was able to pick one of Seattle's earlier wins and it was oddly enough against this division. Dallas was so epic bad this last week, I just don't think they can right the ship with only a week to go. Seattle seems to luck out with running into decent teams while they are at their weakest and manage to capitalize on it.

San Francisco over Washington - I think this had the potential to be a legit game if this was a couple weeks ago, but leave it up to one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the league to dysfunction all over again. San Francisco wins this one big, and I expect another monster game from Frank Gore.

Buffalo over New York Jets - If you read my mid-point message earlier, you already know why I'm going this way.

New Orleans over Tampa Bay - I know New Orelans got manhandled by a turd sandwich team this last week, but it was on the road. All of the Saints losses are on the road. They are still money and home and Drew Brees hasn't had two back to back crappy games in his whole career (as far as I know!)

Cincinnati over Tennessee - The Titans are starting to look like I expected they'd be all season. Also, the Steelers obliterated the Titans so I think the Bengals mimic the same success.

ADDITION 11/3/2011: Someone pointed out to me "Who has Cincinnati beat?" Excellent observation, because it hasn't been anyone significant. They beat Cleveland (division rival, and a team that is only 3-4 at this point), Buffalo (their only win against a legit good team as Buffalo sits at 5-2 currently), Jacksonville (2-6), Indianapolis (0-8) and Seattle (2-5). They lost to San Francisco, who have beaten just about everyone this year, and to the Denver Broncos while they were still starting Kyle Orton. So, one win against good competition and one loss against terrible competition. I'm still picking them to win this game to prove they aren't flukes, but don't be surprised if Tennessee bounces back from their two difficult prior weeks.

Denver over Oakland - This is probably my surprise pick of the week. I'm just unsure about what Palmer will bring to the table. If he plays like we know he can play, then I'm gonna get crushed on this pick, but Oakland's offense was just so terrible against the Chiefs I'm not sure they fix it in just the bye week. Tebow won't be getting Tebowed this game the same way he was in Detroit, either. But man, this was pretty:

Stephen Tulloch is my new hero.

New England over New York Giants - This should actually be a pretty good game, but you just don't pick against Tom Brady playing in Foxborough especially after coming off a loss like they just suffered. I give the Giants a fighter's chance but New England should win in the end.

Green Bay over San Diego - A team which can finish against a team that can't. Theoretically the Chargers should at least be able to make this a game, but dude they are so full of fail right now. I'm not sure I'd pick them against a BAD team, let alone the best in the league.

St. Louis over Arizona - This should be an interesting matchup just from the standpoint it's two utterly amazingly bad teams. Difference being St. Louis seemed to figure something out this week, while Arizona let one of the only good games they've played all season slip away from them. Then again, Arizona might have a big chip on their shoulder about that loss and might finally step up. This game is a toss up for me.

Pittsburgh over Baltimore - The Ravens just have no looked good the last two weeks. They lost and then almost lost to two bad teams, while Pittsburgh has hit their stride. As I usually say, pick the team streaking, not the team shrinking. Plus, you gotta give Pittsburgh the emotional advantage because these teams utterly despise each other and they're going to want to redeem the beatdown they suffered in week 1. Homefield, too, so keep your eyes out for yellow towels.

Philadelphia over Chicago - Philly is streaking finally. As I said, they have the most YPG in the league and can put up points against anyone. If they don't turn the ball over, they win and quite possibly win big time. Should be a great matchup either way, and it's one I'm going to tune into for sure. Good thing it's Monday Night so I don't need to worry about other competing games for my interest.

Man, I am no good at doing things in a timely manner.

So here we are, two weeks after I said I'd start doing my other blog topics besides football and it hasn't been done yet. To top it off, I didn't get my next week's of predictions in on Tuesday! So let's jump right in to that, and we'll figure out what to do when it comes to video games here shortly.

This last week was a turd of a week for the NFL, wasn't it? I don't think there was a single game which really caught my eye. Goodness knows all the ones on basic TV were either blowouts or just ugly, ugly football. As a result, I only got 7 of the 14 games right. Worst week yet. I feel really bad because half my picks don't even count as the St. Louis Hams, Miami Tunas and Indianapolis Clots are still winless. Yeesh.

But, this past week has made me come to a realization: The first three games of this season totally didn't matter. I mean, they will when it comes to the end of the year determining who goes to the playoffs, but none of the teams in the first three weeks are really indicative of that team. I'm blaming the short pre-season for making some bad teams look good and some good teams look bad.

My take on last week's action by game:

• Broncos 18 - Miami 15

All I have to say is Tebow has some crazy lucky breaks, man. I know the kid is getting all the credit for the ridiculous comeback, and he does deserve some because those last two drives were pretty awesome, but the biggest swing play was the recovered onside kick and Broncos fans better realize it. Tebow was awful for 57 minutes. It was great to watch him win, though. Also, Miami: You guys are so bad. Why did you go for that 2 point conversion when you were winning in a shutout? If you make it, yeah okay it makes it a 3 score game no matter what, but missing it meant the other team just needed two TDs, and only one of which (rather than both) would need to be a two point conversion. I honestly think Miami is throwing the season on purpose because the support for their head coach Sporano in the head office is nonsensical at this point.

• Chargers 21 - Jets 27

The Chargers, Ravens and Texans all have a problem like no other teams in the league: They straight up cannot finish games. They had this one, and totally blew it. I want to give the Jets credit, but I actually watched this game, and I can't. Other than Derelle Revis, no one on that team really played particularly excellent football. Well, okay, let's give Plaxico Burress some credit for finally getting his freedom legs back under him. Still, it wasn't so much great football on the part of the Jets as it was a total second half meltdown by my boy Phillip Rivers. It's bizarre how that guy has totally melted this year. He's been one of the top 5 QBs in the league since he's been a starter.

• Texans 41 - Titans 7

This game more than any other is the reason I'm thinking the first three weeks totally don't count. The Titans looked surprisingly excellent for awhile, but have turned back into the turd sandwiches I initially thought they'd be this year. I want to give credit to Houston for rebounding from losing two key players, as well. Good game, gentlement.

• Falcons 23 - Lions 16

Falcons are starting to find their stride, and the Lions injury problems are creeping back up. Remember how I said the first three weeks don't matter? Falcons are 3-1 since with their only loss in that span coming to Green Bay, while the Lions are just 2-2. If there is any franchise capable of looking like something really special and then coming crashing back to reality, it'd be Detroit. I really don't think it's going to happen and I'm sticking by my predictions they'll make the playoffs, but they need to get out of this slump soon. Chicago has started to play pretty consistent, and they are a good team. They're creeping on Detroit's heels and I'm not sure the Lions will be able to hold them off.

• Redskins 20 - Panthers 33

You know, Cam Newton is really good. He's playing elite level QB as a rookie, coming on to one of the worst teams ever in last years Panthers squad. Seriously every time a Carolina game is on, it's a treat. Kid has a rocket, he's accurate, and he can scramble. He's like a black Steve Young, but with even better legs. Also, the Redskins are starting to do what they do best and that's play mediocre football. I bet they have yet another 8-8 season.

• Bears 24 - Buccaneers 18

This game was played in London. Why? I don't rightly know. I mean, it'll be great and all if we can expland the American Football brand beyond our own country and all, but it still seems gimmicky to me. Anyway, as to the actual game, Matt Forte is an animal. I heard a stat off the television he's responsible for over 50% of the team's total offense numbers. That's seriously crazy. He had 180ish yards from scrimmage with a crazy amount of jet lag. Impressive. I also feel bad for the Bucs. They had a decent run game plan when the year began, but Blount's injury and now the season-ending injury to Graham are going to be difficult to overcome. I think Blount returns this week, but we'll see.

• Seahawks 3 - Browns 6

You know how I like to come up with derogatory names for bad teams by now, I'm sure. I'm going with Collin Cowherd by calling Seattle the Seachickens. And I was going to come up with something clever for Cleveland, but I mean they are already the Browns. You don't need to stretch far into the 5 year old child in all of us to giggle at them anyway. Sadly, this wasn't even the Game of the Week Weak because the MNF matchup was just horrible to watch. These teams can't even get a break by being the worst game to watch, how sad is that?

• Steelers 32 - Cardinals 20

Remember preseason when people were all like "Kevin Kolb is a good quarterback!"? I do. At least Cowherd's had the integrity to call himself out on having thought that. I never bought it, personally, because he was a backup for Donovan "I can't complete a pass" McNabb for years. If this guy was really any decent, he'd have started for Philadelphia before Vick came along. I'd also like to point out that Groepslithsberger has put together 2 and a half weeks of really good football. (His second half against the Jags was pretty bad but Jack Del Rio must have something about my division figured out considering the red-assed beatdown they put on the Ravens on MNF.) Just saying, Steelers are still a serious threat to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Mike Wallace is also just about the fastest dude in the NFL.

• Chiefs 28 - Raiders 0

A lot of people in Oakland are mad for the move to bring in Carson Palmer because he had a bad game, but it's not his fault. He was barely getting reps at practice, hasn't played in a game since the end of last year, and hasn't been with the organization even an entire week before being asked to bail out who was supposed to be your backup QB. Kyle Boller was amazingly bad. At least Palmer has an excuse. Notice how I'm only talking about poor QB play and not anything about the Chiefs? It's because I'm still not sold on them. Okay, they pitched a shutout. I'll give them that. But, they only scored 28 points? They had 6 damn turnovers, two of which were already returned for TDs. Those pick sixes were half of their offense? You mean they only managed two touchdowns off the other 4 turnovers, and 0 points on all their other possessions? Sad. Just sad.

• Packers 33 - Vikings 27

I love how people are still saying the Packers will go undefeated even though two rookie QBs have totally demolished their secondary this year. Yeah, they have the most efficient offense in the league. I absolutely don't want to take away from the Packers greatness, as I still am never picking against them all season. I just know they'll lose a game. Your defense can't give up that many points every week because eventually someone will actually make a stop to Aaron Rodgers. I also think the Vikings completely made the right decision to start Christian Ponder. Kid played really well in his first start, and against 17 of the other teams in the league, they'd have won this Sunday. It's just difficult to outscore Rodgers.

• Rams 7 - Cowboys 33

Rams are so bad. I love how people are saying "Oh gee golly, the Cowboys have done figur'd out durr problems 'n are gunna get back to winnin' footsball." It's the Rams. Sort of like what I said last week with the Jets, beating a bad team convincingly just means that other team is really bad.

• Colts 7 - Saints 62

Guys, I think I'm gonna move to Indiana and work out for the Colts. I mean, I've never done anything remotely athletic in my lifetime but even I've gotta be better than some of the players on this team. They are so bad. They are so, so bad. The Saints managed to get two more touchdowns in the 4th quarter when they weren't even trying anymore. And it still cracks me up just how much their QB looks like Sean Penn from Fast Times At Ridgemont High. 

Look at this:

And finally, the Monday Night Game:

• Ravens 7 - Jaguars 12

The Jaguars are one of the worst teams in the league this year, and yet they held the Ravens, one of the best teams so far, to ZERO first downs the entire first half. Yeah, they couldn't get in the endzone themselves, but they've got Scobee who hit 3 50+ yard field goals. Pretty impressive boot if you ask me. This was the most entertaining bad game ever. I saw "highlights" if you can even call them that put to the Benny Hill theme song. If you don't know what that is, it's called Yakety Sax and I guarantee you've heard it. They could have had this playing the entire actual game and it'd have fit. Whoops, fumble. Whoops overthrown pass. Whoops, dropped pass. Whoops 20 yard sack. Whoops 4th and 46 (yes that seriously happened.) I hope we have another inept offense to mock next week because this was fun.

Here comes the fun part.

PREDICTIONS WEEK 8

Baltimore over Arizona - No way Baltimore lays two turds in a row. Unlike Jacksonville, Arizona doesn't at least have a defense. They'll bounce back and win big. Maybe.

Minnesota over Carolina - I know Carolina had an impressive win last week but they still aren't a complete team. Minnesota has underperformed all year, and I think Ponder gets his first win.

Houston over Jacksonville - Maurice Jones-Drew hasn't played well, and Blaine Gabbert just doesn't strike me as a legit NFL starting quarterback. Houston is supposed to get Andre Johnson back soon, too, so if he plays that's pretty much the game.

New York Giants over Miami - I wonder if there's anyone who doesn't have this pick? I'd take St. Louis or Indianapolis over Miami right now.

New Orleans over St. Louis - Who does the NFL scheduling? New Orleans gets to crush two winless teams back to back. I love it.

Tennessee over Indianapolis - Titans has under-performed the last two weeks in a major way, but the Clots have done it all season. I'm going with the team with the veteran QB, but I wouldn't be surprised if Indy squeeks out their first win this year and lose out on drafting that Stanford kid.

Buffalo over Washington - Washington's QB situation turned messy. I think benching Grossman was a mistake. Yeah he had one really bad game, but to throw him under the bus like that to a guy who's just as inconsistent sends the wrong message to your team. Buffalo is also coming off a bye week and the team is legit enough this year I think that extra preparation time helps them here.

Detroit over Denver - Tebow's magic surely can't affect Detroit... can it? I think Suh and Avril are out for blood, so Tebow's arms are going to have to win it for their team and I just don't see that happening.

Pittsburgh over New England - Man this is a tough game to pick, probably the most difficult one this week. The New England Bradys have owned the Steelers in Heinz Field classically. Thing is, Big Ben is playing his best football right now, Mike Wallace gets better every week, and New England's secondary is really bad. This is going to be a shootout, and I always take the team with the better overall D in a shootout. Turnovers win this matchup, period.

Cincinnati over Seattle - The Seachickens are a mess, and Cincinnati is quiety having a really good year. It's weird they got rid of just about their entire offense and are clicking this well. I'm rooting for Dalton to have a game.

San Francisco over Cleveland - This whole Peyton Hillis thing is destroying the Browns. That contract dispute is single-handedly ruining what was supposed to be a much improved season for a historically bad team. San Francisco is playing legit, too. Frank Gore has a huge game, mark my words.

Philadelphia over Dallas - Eagles need this to save their season. Sadly, if they win they are actually up on Dallas in the standings for that division. With the slide of the Redskins, it means they have a shot at getting to the number two spot in just another week should they streak harder and win again.

San Diego over Kansas City - How fitting the MNF game lands on Halloween and features two of the most inconsistent teams in the league. I hope this ends up being a real Jekyll-Hyde match up with a bajillion turnovers. Still, end of the day I think San Diego wins because they can score points without relying on luck or exceptionally bad play by the other team.