I’ve gotta go looking for his stuff outside of the Sandman Slim books, now that I’ve finished all three of ‘em.

For those who don’t know, the Transformer Prime is the first Tegra 3 tablet. If you want more specs than that, well, check out either of those links, and you’ll get ‘em. Performance-wise, it’s fast. Blindingly so. I’ve not managed to make it chug at all, and I Have a bad tendency to leave everything running indefinitely, and never actually shut the thing down, just put it into standby.

My Prime, with the keyboard attachement, sitting on top of my 17″ Compaq.

The weight is just about perfect. @dogandgarden has a Transformer, the previous generation, Tegra2 model. The Prime is dramatically lighter in hand, and thinner as well. Given the screen size is the same, the edges are a fair approximation of the original, minus a few thirds of an inch in any direction. What this means is that I can use it as a reader almost indefinitely: it weighs about the same as a trade-paperback.

What this also means is that it’s perfect for the stuff I want to read. Articles, especially long ones (I have a lot of love for the LongReads RSS feed) fit perfectly, via GReader Pro. The only issue I’ve found so far is that video doesn’t play in GReader Pro since the update to Ice Cream Sandwich. Flip it out to the right browser, though, and it works just fine, and hopefully, GReader will get fixed fairly soon.

The form factor and weight also make it perfect for reading comics: this is something I’d avoided on my Samsung Captivate because a 4” screen is still not quite enough to read comics on. By the same token, it’s perfect for online magazines, which render beautifully.

The same is true for ebooks. I’ve been spending more and more time reading on my phone in the last year, and this just brings it up to real-world level. I can read this thing for hours without any more fatigue than I’ve had from reading a turn-the-pages book for the same length of time.

Gaming performance is what you’d expect for an Nvidia chipset, especially a class-leading one. Stellar. I tend to bounce in and out of games and my other stuff, and it never misses a beat. To be honest, though, gaming is a bonus. It’s not why I bought the device.

There has been some minor weirdness since Asus rolled out the Over-The-Air update from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich.

The primary one of these is the mentioned weirdness in video playback.

I noticed it first in GReader Pro: the video would simply not play: just do a load and pause routine. So, I tried popping it open with the display in web browers button, and same problem there. I’ve used the Dolphin browser on my phone for ages, and I have a lot of love for it, but I wasn’t able to use the button (either in GReader Pro, or Dolphin) to bump into the Youtube app (which wouldn’t have helped with things like Vimeo, anyway). I even tried ‘sharing’ as an email, then copying the link, but when I tried to share as email I got consistent “this link is either deleted or unavailable”: for some reason GReader Pro had stopped linking properly to the video that was embedded. And, surprisingly, so had Dolphin HD. I found the same problem with the OEM Browser.

So, after a little research, I found I wasn’t the only one with this problem. While there wasn’t a fix, different browsers were, apparently, showing different reactions to the situation. Opera for Mobile, sadly, had the same problem. SkyFire was a little better, but had huge issues with Vimeo; it only displayed a big, black box where the video was supposed to be.

However, after switching, on recommendation, to BOAT Browser, most of the problems cleared up. GReader Pro is still an issue, but with BOAT as my default browser, I can open the page in the browser from GReader Pro, and it renders properly.

This is, now that I have a work around, a minor irritant at worst. Hopefully, this’ll help out other people, as I don’t think this is an issue with the Prime, but rather with apps interactions with Ice Cream Sandwich.

It should also be noted that the first thing I did in BOAT is set it to represent itself as a desktop client, not a mobile client. The 10” screen on the Prime is more than enough to render well-designed webpages as they’re meant to be seen, and not on their stripped-down mobile sites.

I’m also still getting used to the keyboard. But I can see this add-on being invaluable in the long term for me, as it makes my tablet nearly a complete replacement for my laptop.

The keyboard is somewhere between ¾ and 7/8 the size of a regular keyboard. What this means is that I get my ‘pinkie stretches’ wrong occasionally when I’m touch-typing. Otherwise, it’s brilliant. The trackpad on it doesn’t get in the way of my typing, and is pretty responsive. As soon as you dock the tablet to the keyboard, it pops a little pointer on the screen, and you’re off to the races.

The battery system in the keyboard is superbly smart too: it really does just charge up your tablet from the keyboard, under the correct assumption that that’s the one you’d want fully charged when you de-dock. Which means it makes sense to store your table on the keyboard when you’re not using it: it’s basically a big, extended battery pack.

Battery life itself is excellent. I was off sick the other day, and spent the day drifting in and out of sleep on the couch, watching Netflix on TV. In the meantime, the Prime kept me company. Read my multiple GReader Pro feeds (I think you’ve figured out by now that this is one of my primary apps), caught up on my Long Reads feed, which I’d neglected since about Christmas, browsing, social media, and games (specifically, FieldRunners HD, Pixel Rain, Wordsmith, and a Zuma clone). In ‘normal’ mode (you can switch from power-saver, normal, and performance in the taskbar/status area with a touch) I got about eighteen hours of use (including standby) with about thirty-percent left in the keyboard, and sixty-five percent left in the tablet itself. I can see an EASY seventy-two hour charging cycle, especially if you do thinks like turning off wifi and Bluetooth when you’re sleeping, even if you don’t shut down completely. Also, if you don’t geek out on the sheer power of the device, and install the matrix-style live wallpaper to chew up power (but it’s SO PRETTY).

I only had honeycomb on the tablet for a couple of days before ICS was pushed out for it, so it’s hard to compare the differences. But it definitely feels like the battery is lasting longer.

I also spent that time using my phone as a wireless access point, rather than my home network, because I wanted to see what mobile data usage was like on a day like that.

If you have less than 2gb a month, you don’t want to use your phone/tablet in this combination often. However, with a complete (and large) game download (42meg) I topped out at about 200meg for the day’s usage. The speed was probably twenty-five percent slower than my home network, visibly, but definitely useful, especially if you set your phone/WAP up where it gets strong HSPA signal. And better still if you have LTE, I guess. Some of us ain’t that lucky!

What I found out though is that with my old 6gb a month plan, I could do days like this every day, and still have plenty left over. Admittedly, this is less a test of the tablet, but the use of the two in conjunction is important to me.

As a footnote, it should be noted that my 3000Mah extended battery didn’t fare anywhere near as well as the tablet. I had to plug the phone in after about twelve hours acting as an access point: I was at 15% battery remaining.

I’m waiting for my very cheap, very basic neoprene sleeve to be delivered. Hopefully, it’ll be soon, because while the brushed aluminum (in grey, which definitely has a sheen of purple) is beautiful, I’ve already got two or three scratches on the back of the tablet from putting it down on the coffee table. If you don’t protect it, you’re going to scratch it, and the same goes for the base of the keyboard (although less of an issue: it has rubber feet keeping the aluminum off the surface you’re putting it on). Just having something to slide the whole assembly into, and/or place it on top of instead of the hard/dirty/gritty surface of a table, will make all the difference. Expect to see some battle damage though.

Unless I wanted the familiarity of my laptop for looking up issues relating to the tablet, or photoshop crunching, I’ve not turned it (the laptop) on since I got the tablet. There’s just no point. The tablet, so far, appears to be good enough that I can ditch my laptop for everything, and probably even go back to a full-on desktop, if I want to. And I’ll be honest, that’s not something I expected to happen. As I said at the start, for 90% of my daily usage, the tablet is not only capable, but better than my laptop. I’m interested to see how I feel about things after a few months, but for the moment, the honeymoon is in full swing. The only downsides are what appears to be first-out-the-gate issues with ICS, and I expect those’ll get fixed as time, and apps, develop for it.

(oh, and this is the article referenced)

And it got me thinking.

Personally, I love leaderboards. I also hate them. I love competing: and, honestly, I believe that competition is not only healthy, but necessary. There is no benefit in “everyone gets a medal day”: it simply fosters the belief that there’s no point in trying if everyone will be rewarded equally. There is nothing inherently wrong with trying to better yourself. There is nothing wrong with attempting to prove yourself good at something. In fact, there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to be the best at something.

And, I do get that there’s a difference between guys and girls on this particular item. And I am workin’ from the gut, as well: the truthiness of things, to coin a phrase, so you’re not only welcome to disagree with me, I expect it.

For those who’ve not noticed (which will be everyone new to this blog, and no one who read my old blog on livejournal) I’m a car guy. What that means is, I’m a racing guy. This goes for cycling, gaming, cars, the works. Winning does count.

As far as gaming goes, there is nothing quite so quantifiable as a racing game. Be it an arcade-style racer like SSX Tricky, or a racing simulator like (my personal favourite) Forza Motorsports. These are where leaderboards are absolutes. If you drive, ride, or fly better, under the same circumstances, then you win. And winning isn’t a dirty word. Forza4 has become a phenomenal example of this.

In older versions, I spent the entirety of my time playing the single player campaign and race seasons: getting through levels, getting my achievements, and setting my times. But they were somewhat in limbo. Yes, I could see where I stood in relation to the rest of the world, but it wasn’t always real to me: just numbers on the screen.

Forza4, however, has a brilliantly executed community section, which I’ve expounded on before.

This, this back-and-forth war with people I know online and in real life, has me thoroughly hooked: not to beat them, but to better myself. When I get that message on my profile saying that someone has beaten my time on a track, in a car, my first reaction isn’t “That asshole beat me!” but rather “So. You CAN go faster. How do I do it?”

The other reason I’ve come to love this community aspect is that it’s real, and so far, not gameable.

See, one of my big beefs is people (and it’s not just kids) for whom the leader board is god. There are those who truly believe that it doesn’t matter how you got to the top of a leaderboard, as long as you’re there. And that doesn’t help anyone. I know, you need a description.
In every racing game, someone, eventually, finds and publicises how to cheat. Now, the guys who create the games and the online content are really good at weeding out these scores, and deleting them, and resetting things back to fair, but people always try. In HydroThunder, it was a glitch in a map that let you go off-map, and straightline to the finishline. Generally, you could cut about thirty seconds off your time doing this.

And a game like forza, with very specific constraints, is a good example. If, for example, the race in question is a Class E / manufacturer’s car race, around a specific track, there is an absolute level to which you can progress: whether you take the best qualified class E car the manufacturer in question makes, or a lower version and modify it up to be competitive, there are definite, vehicle-related restrictions on how fast you can get around that track. And this is reflected in the times for the top racers. We’re talking the difference between say, fifteenth and sixteenth place being a thousandth of a second. Just like real racing. So, if it turns out the go-to car for the race is, say, a Ford Fiesta, and then Joe Dumbass comes along, runs his little cheat, and can run the track under the same conditions, in a Ferrari, he is going to be number one on the leaderboard, by a significant margin: just like the guy in HydroThunder who can straight line the track.

But that’s the problem. Joe Dumbass hasn’t ‘won’ anything. Is he at the top of the leaderboard? Sure. Does that count as winning? Not at all. But, the mentality I’ve seen isn’t about winning. It’s about being number one. And bringing a gun to a knife fight is seen as the way to do it. Because it’s not about being good at the game, being a good driver, shooter, flier, racer, whatever. It’s about occupying that number one spot.

That’s where it becomes unhealthy. Winning at all costs, and damn the rules, with no respect for those you’re competing against isn’t winning.

The further problem is, you can’t convince these guys (and girls) that they’ve not won, either. Because, as far as they’re concerned, they have won. It’s right there. Number One spot on the leaderboard. They are the fastest, or best.

This crap is why I stopped playing CounterStrike back in the day, too. The auto-aim, multiple-damage cheats were absolutely epidemic, and it simply wasn’t fun being fodder for some douchnozzle who was padding their kill count, rather than playing a game.

I, and I think most of the people around me, believe in competing fairly, even if you lose. Maybe even because you lose. I know I don’t have any fun with a game that’s too easy: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit2 had that problem for me. I walked through every race, and the game was over, I felt like I’d wasted my time.

Just like anyone, I get frustrated when I hit that bit of any game where it becomes difficult. But I’ve never found the need to cheat my way through it. Especially when I’m playing against other people: I take my lumps and losses, and either get better, or acknowledge I’m simply not that good at THAT game. There are games I’m nearly the best at. And it’s really satisfying being in the top three percent on some of those leaderboards. But it’s also just as satisfying for me to rise from top eighty percent, to top fifty percent. Or to not play for a while, then claw my way back into my spot.

At the end of the day, this is the difference: there’s players and leaderboard squatters: one’s healthy, one’s not. The article that AvantGame cites is valid: the base psychology is probably the same (and I’m no expert on the subject). I started out thinking “well, that’s RIDICULOUS. This sounds like more sponsorship of “everyone gets a trophy day” and that’s just dumb”. But there’s definitely more too it than that.

In terms of gamers, I think there’s a divide. There’s a small group who actually aren’t gamers. They’re playing for validation of themselves, for whatever reason, and are willing to cheat (lets not sugar coat what they’re doing: it’s cheating) to get that number one slot. The vast majority of us compete legitimately, take our lumps legitimately, and aren’t so completely obsessed that not being number one in the world breaks our brains, to the point that we have to find a way to change the rules for us, while leaving them the same for everyone else.

There’s a lesson in there too, and feel free to cue the after-school-special, G.I.Joe The-More-You-Know flashbacks now.

The lesson is not simply that winning is ok. Losing is ok too. They’re both healthy, like everything else in our lives, in moderation, and free of obsession. We win the moment, we lose the moment, we move on to the next moment. And generally, we know that we did about as good as we can.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, someone beat my autocross time by a tenth of a second, and I’m certain I can make that up in the fourth corner, with some suspension tweaks, and holding second gear a little longer.

Knowing what you’re looking for is always half the battle.

In her case, she’s got two teen kids, and still needs room to get them around. She’s got a long-ish commute to work, and is leaning, for the first time, away from a manual transmission. She likes to drive, so wants there to be driving dynamic in there, too.

Now, I knew all this, and I knew what I was looking to do with that time. I’d already talked with her, and suggested a few vehicles. The commute means she needs fuel economy; the kids means needing some space, and she’s got some issues which may make a manual transmission difficult in the future.

To that effect, I’d already suggested:

Hyundai Veloster

Obviously, she already knows the Matrix/Corolla. The Elantra, Accent, Forte, and Focus are pretty ubiquious these days: the Elantra and Forte share a platform. All four have been redesigned dramatically in the last eighteen months.

The interesting one is the Veloster.

The Veloster is a new machine. It shares a basic platform/chassis and drivetrain with the Accent, so, as you can imagine, it’s fairly small (sub-compact class, in fact). However, it’s super stylish. Now, I have a thing about car style: as with any stylistic endeavour, automotive styling should make you love it or hate it. You should never see a car and say… “meh. Whatever.” Style should polarize, and make you react.

The Veloster does this. It’s an odd design: a coupe/hatchback on the driver’s side, a sedan/hatch on the passenger side. Yup. It’s asymetrical. But it really works. Unlike the Nissan Cube, which is, arguably, the worst looking vehicle since the Pontiac Aztek.

It’s got aggressive styling, but still maintains the new family face: in fact, it does the family face far better than some other models (2013 Genesis Coupe, I’m looking at you). I quite like it. Despite the boy-racer vents on the hood, it’s a good looking little car, with aggressive, but not over-the-top lines. However.

When you sit down in it for the first time, you notice that the design has created some compromises from the drivers seat. Specifically, the C-pillar is huge. Monsterous. And while shoulder checks are still possible, you will learn to use the oversize mirrors properly for lane changes, because you’ll have to. In addition is the visibility out of the back glass/hatchback. It’s not terrible, thanks to a squared back, and a lowered second window. But it’s a small viewing area.

And that would make things really difficult: not on the road, but parking. Except. Except the Veloster comes with, as part of the huge 7″ center stack touch screen (with the base model, no less) a backup camera. And after using it, I gotta say, I like it. I had to try to break old habits (watching my mirrors left and right, and watching over my shoulder constantly) but the backup camera is superbly effective. It activates and takes over the screen as soon as you put the car in reverse, and gives you green/yellow/red areas on-screen for distances. My brief experience with it says that it works very well.

(not my video by the way, but a great demo)

Once you get used to it, you don’t have to move an awful lot to get yourself parked, which is nice. I can see how this kind of feature gets addictive really quickly.

While we’re in the driver’s seat, here’s the only issue with the actual space, as far as I’m concerned. the seats are great: definitely not the equal of my Genesis Coupe, but for the bracket and type of vehicle, excellent: good support, a long enough seat to support your thighs, and good lower back support. I was only in the car for half an hour, but I didn’t have any issues iwth my notoriously bad back, or stiffening in the shoulders, or uncomfortable leg positions: the pedals are right, the steering is adjustable, and the dead pedal is spot on.

However, those of slightly-more-than-average height (I’m 6′ even), beware. I drove a base model, with no power sunroof. WIth the seat adjusted to its lowest position, I had about an inch of clearance between my head and the headliner. I’ve sat in the “tech pacakge” with the sunroof. I was touching the headliner with my noggin. Not brushing it, but actually TOUCHING it. If I assumed a gangster slouch, I was fine, but I can’t drive like that.

Which is as good a time to mention my other issue. The touch screen interface is absolutely brilliant: the base has the 7″ touch screen, and it’ll do everything you can think of: GraceNote is included: Hyundai’s smartphone interface, as is XM radio, ipod support, either cabled or over bluetooth, and more features and options than you can shake a stick at, as well as the back-up camera.

Despite that, you can’t get the Navigation system on it without buying the “tech package”, which includes, among other things, the sunroof, and 18″ wheels, and upgraded stereo. COME ON, HYUNDAI. You’re supposed to be better than this now: this is a blatant screw-job on the customer, making them buy a package they don’t want just so they can get navigation on that beautiful screen. You need to fix this immediately. It should be an option you can just add in for a couple hundred bucks. In my case, my height precludes me from having a navigation system, which is absolutely ludicrous. Also, $3500 to get navigation is … well, I’ve used most of the adjectives that denote “insane”. You get the idea.

All of this is before I even pulled out into traffic. So, here we go. Now, you’ve seen I’m torn on the car so far: it does a lot of things well. How does it drive, though?

It drives well. You’re well isolated from road noise, which I hadn’t expected in what is, essentially, an econobox. The suspension is stiff enough to encourage some spirited, fun driving, and provide road feel, but it doesn’t have the choppy, performance-oriented stiffness that my own Genesis Coupe has. It’s compliant, but you will feel potholes, in a way that you won’t in, say, a Civic or Corolla. That said, those aren’t the competition for it. The steering is communcative, bordering on heavy: something I didn’t expect in a car this small. I like it, but I can imagine that some won’t. Credit where credit is due, it also never felt over-boosted.

Basically, it’s fun to drive. The DCT Dual Clutch Transmission does its job admirably. Personally, I’d still go for a true, three-pedal manual transmission, but the DCT is a great piece of kit. Shifts were snappy at high revs, and smooth as silk if you short shift. It’s equally good in “D” mode: if you’re flooring it, it didn’t appear to short shift me, and in general traffic, I barely noticed the shifts. The only issue I had with it is the same as I have with every flappy paddle gearbox: if you’re in the middle of a turn (especially a left across traffic) you’re ‘stuck’ in gear, because the paddles rotate with the wheel. Can we please, all manufacturers, put the paddles on the column and leave them there, and not have them rotate around as you turn the wheel? Thanks!

Then engine itself is a 1.6L GDI engine: the identical model that is in the 2012 Accent. And again, it’s a good little powerplant. It’s not fast, but this isn’t designed to be a fast car. with 138hp and 124lb.ft of torque, it’s a good thing the car is a relative lightweight. It’s fast enough for merging, but you’re not going to win any stoplight drag races in it. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll want to wait for the rumoured 200hp turbo 1.6L supposedly in the pipeline.

Rather, what this engine is good at is getting you around competently, and with an eye to fuel economy. I didn’t get chance to really go for broke, and see what the fuel economy is like, but I think, with a cautious foot, the suggested 4.9L/100km highway, and 7.2L/100km city are achievable on a regular basis.

And you’ll be getting around with four people and not likely more. Again, there’s the wierdly attractive door configuration. The backseat is emminently useable: you have to find the correct spot to sit or you’ll be knocking your head off the glass or headliner, and if you’re over 6’1, the back seat will not be a friendly place: but the seats are comfortable, and there’s a ton of legroom. Far, far more legroom than I’d expected. Anyone under 5’10 will be comfortable over the long haul in this backseat though. The trunk should be good for a good chunk of luggage: a couple of suitcases for sure, gym and school bags, definitely, or a major grocery run. For golf bags, you’re going to want the back seat folded flat, however. (this is from my uneducated eyeball: I’d recommend taking you clubs with you if you’re a golfer and looking at this lil’ runaround). There’s also storage areas and cubby’s everywhere: a good, rubber-padded spot for phones and ipods in the center stack, next to dual 12v plug ins and USB/ipod plug in. The armrest houses two seperate compartments, and the glove box is as spacious as you’d expect. My cup holder happily head an Extra-Large Timmies while I was shifting for myself.

That pretty much sums my experience with about an hour with the car. I like it, I gotta say. From a styling front, it’s not going to be for everyone: it’s a quirky design. But I think those who do like it will love it, and it’ll develop its own following for that. It’s got great fuel economy, and good, if not great, space, and when that turbo shows up, it’ll be a performer that really surprises. The only thing I really, really have to say irks me is the requirement for buying the tech package just to get the navigation system. I know they want to call it a tech package, but they’d do better just to include it in the base car, with that awesome screen, and make the stereo, sunroof, and wheels a luxury package upgrade: I for one, couldn’t care less about those options: sunroof I don’t fit, stereo I don’t care, and wheels, well, if I want upgraded wheels, I’ll go buy the ones I really like, aftermarket. Just put the navigation system in the base touch screen set up, PLEASE, ok, Hyundai?

Pro’s:

-great looking
-fantastic 7″ touch screen ICE system
-DCT transmission done right
-fuel economy
-great handling for an economy car
-tons of space for an economy car

Con’s

-rearward visibility
-Navigation system only available on tech package
-sunroof encroaching on seating for average+ size drivers
-slightly underpowered
-paddles that don’t stay still.

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/testdrive-hyundai-veloster/feed/ 0 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-car-guy-returns/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-car-guy-returns/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:35:06 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-car-guy-returns/ ]]> It’s the first time here, but anyone who followed my previously knows that I am a car guy.  I love cars.  I test drive cars just for something to do.  And I compare ‘em.  

And, I’ll also admit, I’ve become something of a Hyundai Fanboy in the last few years.  I tried very, very hard not to be, but the strides they (and sister company Kia) have made in the last ten years are pretty spectacular.  Their sales numbers are impressive.  More impressive, though, is the quality of the vehicles they’re putting out.

I also own a hyundai.  Specifically, I committed the cardinal sin in the car world.  I bought my <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Genesis_Coupe”>2.0T Genesis Coupe</a> not only in the first year the new platform (BK) was available, but in the first six weeks it was available in North America.  I ordered my car on April 8th, 2009, and took delivery about eight weeks later, June 11th.  It was an early 2010.

It’s no longer quite stock, but it doesn’t stop me admiring other cars, from vintage to new. 

And I test-drive stuff.  For fun. All kinds of things.  So, you’re going to get seat-of-the-pants reviews here occcasionally. Like tonight, for instance!  stay tuned!

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-car-guy-returns/feed/ 0 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/multi-generational-nerd-massacre/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/multi-generational-nerd-massacre/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:01:16 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/?p=496 ]]> Over the years, as home networks became more accessible, LAN gaming has been something “to do”. I’m not sure if it’s becoming less so, now, thanks to the proliferation of actual, useful connections to the outside world, and services like XBL, but I remember those halcyon days clearly and with great fondness.

Long before there was World of Warcraft (which I’ve never even tried: I just never got to it, or really saw the appeal), there was Warcraft 2, and Starcraft. Now, I know Starcraft is still a bigmotherfuckingthing™ in Asia, and the tournaments are epic but we definitely don’t see that kind of interest here in North America.

But my first serious introduction to network/LAN gaming was Warcraft 2, followed by Starcraft. Oh, there’s others, but we’ll get there.

Warcraft 2 was awesome. The house at the time (in university, circa 1998) was four guys, with a Co-Axial cable network in house, set up by our resident king-of-tech MightyDogKing. And we played the holy hell out of Warcraft 2. Teams of two, deathmatch, the works.

Zug zug, baby. Zug. Zug.

Sometime in that, we graduated to Starcraft, and Quake 2. Obviously, for different reasons. Starcraft was, well… It was Warcraft 2 in space, with a ton of prettier graphics.

But Quake 2. Oh, Quake 2.

I shudder to think just how much time we lost to that game. We played full-on insanity on the co-ax network in the first house. Again, four machines, occasionally a laptop. Or someone would bring their box round to jump on the network too.

That game, and the OpenGL for it, was the reason I briefly started getting videocard crazy. My first rig, the first one that could play it properly, was a P75 with eight megs of ram. It didn’t have an AGP slot, but it had lots of PCI slots. And I filled ‘em. First, with a Matrox Mystique with two whole megs of dedicated memory. And that would do some stuff, especially with the P75 backing it up. But eventually, that wasn’t enough.

And one night, both MightyDogKing and myself bit the bullet, went to a local computer store, and cleaned ‘em out. We bought four 8 meg 3dfx cards between us. At the time, I think it cost us something like $275, for each of us, with the promise of a hundred bucks in mail-in rebates. Why four? Well, Because SLI, that’s why.

The Voodoo2 3Dfx cards (if you were willing to pay, you could have dual 12 meg cards, but the price was exorbitant) were… stunning. I’d never seen anything like it. With the Matrox for 2D, and the Voodoo2’s for 3D (and lets face it we bought ‘em specifically so we could play Quake 2 at the unheard of 1024×768, with everything turned on, including Glide) and just.. wow. I know we take this stuff for granted now, and I can play Q2 in a window on my damn laptop while watching a high-def video, but at the time, it was nothing short of miraculous.

We left the house we were in, I think a winter after that, but the network (upgraded to Cat5, by now) followed us to an absolute crapshack. And the gaming and upgrading continued. And the Quake 2. There was, suddenly, a server (again, courtesy of MightyDogKing and a tradition was truly born then. Friday nights were dedicated, especially in the dark, long nights of winter as a broke-ass student, to Quake and pre-drinking: then grab the money you did have, and head to the bar. Unless we forgot to go to the bar, which happened fairly regularly. And those marathon sessions were awesome. We had a machine for each resident (4), two guest-boxes, hacked together with leftover parts and monitors from previous upgrades (the Voodoo2 cards ended up in here for a long time) and whatever anyone else brought over. But the server attracted outside players as well, and in some sick kind of wisdom, MightyDogKing put bots on there too, for when there weren’t enough players to fill it out. Some nights, it was as much fun to watch people we didn’t know trying to communicate with the bots.

And skinning. Nothing like getting shot by Homer Simpson wielding a railgun, really. How can you match that?

Finally, we settled into the superhero mod. Pick up runes, gives you major and minor superpowers: limited flight, vampire, endurance, etc.

And that was insanity. There was so much cursing, swearing, and general high-volume denigration from room to room, it’s actually hard to believe now. But holy god was it fun!

The hardware arms race continued for a few years: at least until 2002, I think. Most of us migrated to consoles after that. But that arms race really left us in a situation where we always had enough firepower to put five or six machines together that were capable of playing Quake 2, and later, Unreal Tournament. The good one, the first one, not the twitch-kiddy game that came later.

So here we are, in 2011, looking down the barrel of 2012, and all of a sudden, I’ve got a hankering to play Quake 2 again, to see if that server can go back up.

And fast-forward twenty-four hours. I installed and played Quake 2 again last night and, sadly, it doesn’t stand up anymore. DAMMIT. I’ll admit, I only played the single player, sans-mods, but… damn. Yeah, it’s not there anymore. We’ve come too far.

Maybe I should give Unreal Tournament a try again. I always did love the towers level, even though I suck ass with a sniper rifle.

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/multi-generational-nerd-massacre/feed/ 3 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/game-on/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/game-on/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:15:47 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/?p=492 ]]> It’s pretty much always gaming season now, I’ll be honest about that. I don’t devote hour upon hour upon hour to gaming, by any means, but when I have the chance, I still sit down and happily fight my way through the game du jour for eight hours at a sitting. It just doesn’t happen as often as it used to.

Or, rather, didn’t. The stopping point last year was the sheer volume of attention a new puppy needs.

But, these things change.

This tormenting, pointy-toothed, time-sucking minion of hell:

Has now become this:

A fully formed, adult, sometimes calm, occasionally-time-and-attention-demanding-but-happy-to-snore-on-the-couch-next-to-you ninety pound lump of soft pudding.

He also makes an excellent pillow.

But I digress.

Gaming season is upon us, such as it is. The fall is the time when the majority of the big releases hit, the franchise games that sell solidly and are eagerly anticipated by hardcore and casual gamers alike.

Today, I’m talking about my obsessions. Later, we’ll get to wants and desires.

Right now, the biggest time suck I have is Forza Motorsports 4. It’s absolutely dominating my time. And, I’m seriously impressed with the improvements that have been made. For the time, Forza2 was blindingly good. As much as I enjoyed it (and I did) Forza3 was beautiful, technically near-perfect, and… still lacking something that Forza2 had.

Forza4 brings that something back. I care about it. It raises my pulse. I’m battling it again, rather than just running races.

Part of that is, without doubt, the new online component. Let me be clear, I’ve still not jumped in directly in an online game, competing on the same track with other live players. No, what I’m talking about is “Rivals” mode.

Rivals mode is a serious of motorsports events, some of which change on a monthly basis. When you jump in, the first challenge in any series is another player’s already set time, and a reward. The more you win, the lower the times get, and the higher the rewards get. But you ‘know’ at least some of the people. It draws from your car club[1] and your friends list and pits you against those people first. When you win, you get to see your time in lights. What’s really dragging me in is that you get a message when someone ‘challenges’ your time and wins. Ahhh, but there’s more! Because you can run fast and dirty, or fast and clean. But slow and clean always beats fast and dirty! Dirty is when you hit a cone, a wall, another car, or go off track. Clean is just that, a clean, on-track run where you didn’t hit anything

You combine this with some of the other features, and, well, the rivalry grows, and becomes obsessive.

Let me give you an example. I ran the Nurburgring Grand Prix Circuit in a Class C car. I ran a fairly respectable if not quick: it was my first time running AutoCross: I hit a couple of marker cones, and turned a 2m46s or so.

About an hour later, a message comes in:

“b000zysmurf: your time has been bettered by sChocolate”.

Worse, Choccy gifted me a video replay of him beating my time. With a fairly significant 4 second margin. Needless to say, I felt the replay was unnecessary, until I had one to send to him. Which, an hour later, I had. 2m39s. Which I sent with the message “It’s going to be like that, eh?”

He came back with a 2:36.173, which I fairly promptly (and by fairly promptly, I mean after tweaking suspension rates, camber, bump stop, spring stiffness, toe-in, and tire pressures on my car) I sent him his next video, of me turning a great-for-me 2:24.113.

There has been no response as of this writing.

But this illustrates my impressions of the game. Not only is it perversely beautiful, detailed, and deep (they call it “car porn” for a reason), but its compelling. There’s no story line except for the competition. And I appreciate the ‘rivals’ scene far more than racing online directly against others: there’s always one douche who gets off on either cheating, or competing way out of his ability, and screwing it up for everyone else. There’s always the guy who equates “leaderboards” with “being best” and sees no problem with actively cheating the system to find a way to get an S class car into a C class leaderboard, and being the fastest by thirty seconds.

Rivalries take all that way, while still making you compete. You know the time you want to beat, but at the end of the day, you’re racing yourself, and the track, more than anything. You’re finding the best way to get you around the track with no other impediments.

And then using that knowledge to tromp your friends hopes and dreams.

You know, the way it SHOULD be.

The car guys (like me) can, without doubt, get lost in the minutia of car tuning. And honestly, the game is deep enough now that you can’t be seriously competitively fast without tuning. But you can still jump into stock classes in whatever scene, set the difficulty where you want it, and have fun without tuning. And it’s a spectacular balance.

My only gripe with the game so far is the AI still is not there. In career, I’m blazing through races, getting gold every time. I know that, in any given career race, I’m going to win unless I do something stupid.

Waaay back up there, I said “biggest”. But not only time-suck. I picked up Rage on the advice of an old friend/FB contact, and I’ve not been disappointed. Smooth as silk, beautiful as the day is long, and looks like a good story line. I had been searching for something of this ilk as I’ve finally about done with Borderlands after two years, and am waiting for Borderlands2 in the spring.

And Rage definitely fits the bill. But with the time I’ve been putting into Forza, it’s just not been happening for me yet! I do love me some story-line based first-person shooter though.

Which leads me to: “What do I want next?” And there’s plenty, but that’s a story for another day. And a list. Mostly a list.

[1] Car Clubs are another great addition to the game. In my case, it’s an extension of the club (http://www.gencoupe.com) that I already belong to, because of my beloved Genesis Coupe.

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/game-on/feed/ 1 markramsden Zaphod the Pointy-ended Menace Zaphod, REALLY chillin' out http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/tis-the-season/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/tis-the-season/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:12:14 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/?p=485 ]]> We’re having a bit of a horror-movie-fest here, these days. Hallowe’en is the time where, even if you’re not a horror fan, you tend to watch a few.

So, the plan for the next few weeks is to sit down, pretty much nightly, and instead of just turning on the background drone of sitcoms, gaming news and reviews, news, and home renovation shows, to find a few good (or bad, as the case may be) horror flicks.

I have a flirting relationship with horror. I’m not a true fan, but some stuff really floats my boat (or balloon: They all float down here, Georgie!). Zombies, creature-features in general, and the ‘classics’, definitely do it. Torture-porn does not.

Monday, I checked out Feast. Now, I gotta say, for me, this is what an entertaining horror flick should be. There’s some comedy, some blood, some jump scares, and some fairly creative shooting. It’s a well-worn idea (basically, a standoff, a la Alamo, or Titty twister). It’s got some great touches though, especially early on. I’m generally not a fan of sequels, but this one… Yeah, I’m going to be checking out episodes two and three, for sure. I’ll give Feast a solid 4 out of 5.

Tuesday night, Jennifer’s Body. I’ve been avoiding this one. And not because of Megan Fox. It just looked schlocky.

And it totally was. But in a really, really watchable, enjoyable way. Can you see the end coming? Totally. Do you care? Not at all. 3.5 out of 5. Definitely worth catching, as it’s on Netflix.

Wednesday night: Silver Bullet. I’d forgotten how much fun that flick was, and it was well enjoyed.

Nearly six months ago, as the summer blockbuster season started, I wrote a piece about how summer, movies, and me all come together, and my childhood with movies. I only got around to posting it recently, but something in it is relevant to this discussion: For some reason, one of the flicks that always sticks out in my childhood is The Gate, which is, by the way, a truly, truly terrible, awful and yet slightly endearing PG13 horror flick. That one, it’s not about the movie for me, it’s about the associations with the movie. I promise, I will post that piece, very late, and very out of context (I never put it up anywhere, just never got around to it) given the time frame I was writing in and about, but still. it’ll give you all (all, what, six of you, these days) an idea of what I look for in movies.

The thing is, back to the topic at hand, I have to pick and choose horror carefully. Because TheGirl(tm) is watching them this week too. And she is very, very much not a horror fan.

I recently introduced her to Poltergeist. One of the comments she kept making was “Wow, that’s SO cliché”; I had to keep reminding her that while she was right, this was actually one of the movies that the modern horror clichés came from. It should also be noted that she really enjoyed Jennifer’s Body; I watched Feast without her.

The tone is set then.

The question is, with Hallowe’en still ten days away, what else do I introduce her to that won’t put her off entirely, but is still actually entertaining?

There are a bunch of movies that still scare the bejebus out of me, in a fun way. They’re almost all classics (and I use the term loosely) of the genre.

Ghostbusters

I have a grave feeling (oh, I’m punny!) that both Ghostbusters and Army of Darkness will get watched on Saturday. They’re fun, perennial favorites, and it’s my birthday. Everyone I know knows every line in both of those movies, so it should work out really well.

But what else?

I don’t know if I can get her to watch the Exorcist. I never had any huge love for the Hallowe’en movies. I’m tempted to skip over the the entire slasher genre, and go straight to either Jason X, and Freddy vs Jason: both of which are wonderfully schlocky, bloody, and pretty hysterical, with decent production values thrown in there too.

I’m thinking maybe The Stuff: I’ve not seen that in years. And maybe the 80′s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers which is still downright creepy. And elhulk has suggested PuppetMaster, which I loved growin’ up, and Ghoulies.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I gotta admit, horror is not my thing when it comes to movies. I enjoy ‘em, but it’s not my primary go. The big admission on this is, I tried watching A Haunting in Conneticut a few weeks ago, and the whole vibe to it creeped me out so much I turned it off half way through. Eventually, I’ll get to the whole thing but DAMN. Every creak just freaked me out! I’m such a puss. And all that said, it seemed really well shot and acted, as much as I watched. Which, really, was part of the problem. Disbelief, suspended. Mark, terrified.

What? I love these movies, but it didn’t stop me sleeping with my light on for three days after I saw Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time when I was thirteen.

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/tis-the-season/feed/ 0 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/going-to-the-movies/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/going-to-the-movies/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:43:11 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/going-to-the-movies/ ]]> Movies, and movie theatres, can be magical things. They may have become a normalcy, especially with the level of advertising, both for, and in, theatres, and our knowledge of profits on a per-movie basis (which now seem to be touted as a measure of how good a movie is: A good movie is not always a successful movie, and a successful movie is not always a good movie. Case in point, Fast & Furious), and sheer speed at which one blockbuster is replaced with another. I could, quite easily, go to the movies twice a week, and still not see all the movies I think I want to see.

But there was a time…

When I was a kid, the very, very first movie I remember going to see in the theatres was 1979′s “The Black Hole”. I don’t think I’ve seen it since it was on cable TV the first year I came to Canada (that would have been 1984). I loved that movie. Oh, I know there’s complaints about *ahem* continuity and flat out “What the Fuck..?” moments, but still. I was 7, and it was Sci-Fi, and there were robots, and there was special-effects, and it was GREAT. It’s still great in my mind, because I’ve not seen it in twenty-five years. The second I remember going to see was E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. you know, before they fucked it up by replacing guns with walkie-talkies and shit, to make it ‘less threatening’ and ‘less interesting’. That, I saw in a theatre in downtown Brussels, Belgium: it was a full day trip for my little brother’s birthday. My turn was to come: we went to the same theatre (and stood in line!!) for my birthday, for Return of the Jedi.

The first movie I saw in a Canadian Theatre (the Cineplex in Milton) was… Ghostbusters!. It was the last movie I had to go see with a parent, I think. Saw it with my Dad and little brother (said little brother was scared to death by the Library ghost), and loved every second of it.

Fastfoward to 1987, and it was time to start sneaking into movies. Not without paying, that never seemed like a good plan: we’d buy our tickets for a PG movie, and then ‘sneak’ into the movie we wanted to see. Movies like The Gate.

I saw the commercials for The Gate, and man. That was a movie that I wanted to see. I’d just turned 14, I could go see it, it was PG13!! I didn’t have to ask or ANYTHING. I could get the ride out to the theatre, put my money down, and go see that movie.

So, on a Thursday night in the summer, my friends at the time and I did just that. All got rides, planned on the 7pm show. Got out there, got up to the gate (heh. Fewer demons at the ticket gate than in the movie, but still…) and…

“You can’t see that.”

My fourteen-year-old indignation knew no bounds. Unfortunately, neither did my public humiliation. I was being turned away from a movie I’d technically been legal to see for more than a year, because…

I didn’t look fourteen. I looked, truth be known, about eleven. I was small all the way through high-school, and I was probably 4’8″, 80lbs, and still thoroughly baby-faced in 1987.

But I was fourteen! And damn her for not being able to tell!

And me, for not having anything that would pass as ID with a valid date of birth on it: it’d be two years before I got my driver’s license, and the validity of ‘realpersonhood’ that came with it. We were turned away.

My friends at the time, geeks and nerds all (and bless ‘em for it) didn’t buy tickets as a show of solidarity. We burned ten bucks each playing video games and pinball in the lobby. Which was good, but not what we wanted. We wanted to see that movie!

So, next week rolls around, with another payday (yeah, I was working by then. Day I turned fourteen I started looking for a job, and worked at KFC on Main St, in the kitchen, for the princely sum of $3.85 an hour. Fifteen cents more than minimum wage, I’ll have you know!) to provide the necessary funds for a movie.

So, we went again. We bought tickets for … something else. Strangely, THAT I can’t remember. It was PG, and we’d picked something that would both appeal to ‘us’ (guys, age fourteen) so as not to appear obvious, and had a start time approximating that of “The Gate”.

It was our own (unbeknownst to us) carefully planned Ocean’s Eleven.

So, we got our tickets, our drinks, our candy. We posted our lookout. And we went for it.

It would probably be a better story if we got busted. But we followed a crowd into the theatre we wanted to be in, grabbed some seats in a good spot (but slightly off to the side), made sure there was an adult in the row (so it kind of looked like we were with a ‘chaparone’ even though we weren’t) and watched the movie.

And yeah, if you’re fourteen, in 1987, “The Gate” was a pretty scary movie. Especially when the “workman” falls out of the wall (at 1:17 of the trailer).

Actually, twenty-odd years later, that’s actually still a pretty decent bit of special effects. Well ahead of what was given to us in the rest of the flick. Especially the acting. The acting? Definitely sub-par.

But, it’s one of those movies, at least for me. It was a marker, a milestone for me doing stuff. Yeah, I should have just been able to buy the ticket, and it would probably still have had the same memorable quality as that “first”. But it was maaaaaaaybe better that we had to sneak in. We all still looked young, despite being old enough: Hell, we probably still referred to those around us as ‘big kids’ or “little kids”, and counted ourselves among them. It was fun sneaking in, and I’m sure it made the movie better.

We never tried to up-the-ante and sneak into an “R” movie, either. Don’t get greedy, that’s the thing!

It’s strange. Very few movie outings these days are “memorable”. You go, see the movie, leave, and forget about it. But the ones that hit me, were really good.

The Gate, obviously.

Nightmare on Elm St. Freddy’s Dead IN 3-D! was awesome, at least partly because of screaming girls, and pretending to have the car die on the way home.

On Elm Street.

What??

The first Fast & the Furious movie. Partly because it was free, and really, really, really loud, but also watching the really young’uns leaving the theatre, thoroughly incapable of driving safely.

The Mist, which has not aged well, even in three or four years, but at the time, was what I thought a Stephen King movie was supposed to be: it captured EVERYTHING about that story brilliantly, and all three of us (Jay, and I) were just boggled by it as we left.

Pan’s Labyrinth did the same thing. Partly because it’s a brilliant movie, but also because it was free. And also because of watching someone walk out of a free advance-showing of a movie because “I ain’t stickin’ around to READ a movie! I hate to read! They should tell you that before you come into a movie!”

LOTR Fellowship of the Ring, because, after fifty years, we (my brother and Dad) found a fantasy story that not only did my mom enjoy, but desperately wanted to know “what happened”. All three of the LOTR movies were marker’s for me, because they were a family event, we looked forward to it (always boxing day, for three years) and after we got mom into the first one (“Oh, I’ll go. But it’s not my kind of movie. But it’s a family thing so I’ll go” to “YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS” which was answered with “Go read the books or wait until next year” and was followed with my mom beating my brother and I with whatever was at hand. Ok, that last bit is made up, but you get the idea)

The memorable ones aren’t memorable because of the movie. They’re memorable because of how they make you feel, and who you’re with when you see them: because of their ability to bookmark a moment in your life. And they don’t do that often anymore. Mostly, they’re consumables. And don’t get me wrong. There’s a place in the world for movies as consumables: things you enjoy in the moment, but don’t stay with you. But that spirit has to show up sometimes. They can’t all be defining moments for you, for sure. But some of them should be.

I wrote most of this, here, pretty much everything before this line, in fact, in May. Never got around to posting it! Since then, I’ve seen a few movies: the latest Fast’n’Furious; Thor; Drive Angry In 3D; Priest; Cowboys & Aliens; you get the picture?

The one that got me, though, was Super 8. Super 8 is a throw back to those movies that get you. There’s a lot that feels like them in it: The cast is fantastic, the writing is good, the pacing works. Is it a simple movie? Well, yeah, it is. And it’s not as… naïve.. as a lot of movies used to be. It channels, witout being, a bunch of those movies.

Which ones? Well, The Goonies, for one. There’s something of the ‘kids vs adults caper movie’ to it, as well, things like BMX Bandits, and to a lesser degree, Hackers. A lot of people have compared it to E.T., but I don’t think that’s actually a fair comparison. There’s far more violence in it than E.T.: and while the government cover up has a similar vibe, there’s actually a lot more validity to what the government is doing in covering the situation than in E.T. for whatever reason (telling you would be a major spoiler!) There’s some Stand By Me in there too.

But don’t think for a second that Super 8 is those movies. Those are at best comparative: more, for me to write about it, I’ve got to be able to tell you the feelings that the film drew out of me. And for the most part, it’s very similar to the feelings that those movies got from me.

Temporal setting was important too. You couldn’t make Super 8 in a modern setting. It’s all about, not only the naivety of the seventies and eighties: a naivety that I don’t think most kids have now, but it’s about a lack of communication. All the kids in it, today, would have cell phones and internet connections: they’d be making digital high-def movies themselves, not waiting for 8mm film to be processed; they’d be CONNECTED, and a huge part of that flick is being disconnected. They do something I’ve not seen in years: they communicate, bedroom-to-bedroom, via walkie-talkie.

Super 8 is, in a phrase, what I loved in a summer movie as a kid. I don’t think it’ll ever be a classic. It might. But I doubt it. Classics are few and far between these days: a movie lasts weeks, at best, in the theatre, and if it doesn’t get to number one in its first weekend open? Then it doesn’t get to number one, and that’s that. Gone are the days where word-of-mouth makes the second weekend bigger than the first: we already know (the commercials tell us) that the movie is a blockbuster and everyone loves it, before it even opens.

That was the other thing with Super 8. I skipped all the lead-up. I miss the days where you went to see a movie based on a thirty second spot on TV, that maybe, maybe you’d see twice, and seeing the poster up in the theatre. Now, by the time you sit down in the theatre to see the movie, you already know the plot, you know who the bad guy is, you know who all the primary players are, you probably know the twist, and, something that’s disheartening and becoming more and more common… you’ve already seen the climax in the trailer. Trailers which, I might add, are now approaching double-digit percentages of the movie they’re promoting, in terms of length.

Do we need to be spoon fed that much?

But Super 8, they at least waited until the week before, from what I saw and read, to really give up some details. It ‘felt’ older than it was. Once I figured out that it was going to be one of those, to use a terrible, turn-off of a phrase, nostalgia-inducing movies, I switched off. I actively avoided all the promotional materials, reviews, trailers, and changed the channel when a commercial came on. Because I didn’t want it spoiled for me.

Keep in mind, it wasn’t as bad as most: but if I’d have watched the material, I’d have known was going to happen. And I don’t get that. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, the audience appears to have told the producers and marketers that they don’t want to be surprised: they want to know what they’re getting ahead of time, completely. It’s like North Americans going to Japan, and eating nothing but McDonalds, because it’s familiar. “I wanna go see foreign places, as long as they’re just like home and I don’t feel uncomfortable or out of place”. I don’t get it. What’s the point?

Super 8, I managed not to be spoon fed. And it was far better for it, I think.

And that’s the thing. Movies have taken one further slip, I think. They’re at best product, rather than entertainment (and there’s a difference), and at worst, they’re simply commercials. See the movie of the videogame and comic book and toys, oh, the glorous toys! (sidenote: the toys are rarely glorious these days, either) It used to be the ‘things’ supported the movie. Now, the movie is simply often just a vessel by which other products are sold: a gimmick, a label to put on things so that they can be sold and consumed. More and more rarely, movies are made and sold as movies. Oh, it happens, but that’s the land of art and drama, which are sold less as entertainment, as well, and more as high-brow product.

You can go to a movie, switch off, and enjoy it, without buying the video game, or the toys, or the fastfood-related-bonus-item. Just like you can go to a movie and enjoy it AND think at the same time.

But they don’t appear to want you to.

And what it means is it’s very unlikely we’ll see another Poltergeist, or Real Genius. And I don’t have a lot of hope for the reboot (and how I’m starting to hate THAT phrase) of FrightNight despite the new cast they’ve tapped.

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/going-to-the-movies/feed/ 2 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/474/ http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/474/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:52:17 +0000 markramsden http://markramsden.wordpress.com/?p=474 ]]> I really dig this shot: it’s an older one (last winter) but I think it’s a great capture. Who doesn’t love a dog chasin’ snowballs?

]]> http://markramsden.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/474/feed/ 0 markramsden AirZaphod-I