SameOldSchmidt

I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead when I can find the time. It’s a blast to play with the Dead Lantern crew. I’d like to prove myself by beating a campaign on the “Expert” difficulty setting but it can take forever. That’s getting into diminishing returns territory for me, I’m afraid.

Also, dudes, go check out your local Blockbuster video stores. They’re having a buy one, get one free sale on video games through the next week or so. I scored Grand Theft Auto 4, Manhunt 2 and some other cool junk for just a few bucks.

Comic from VG Cats.

This interview with an A.V. Club commenter is pretty funny. You can keep the chips, though.

Cross-posted at Dead Lantern.

I made a mixtape that you can download: dlmix01.zip (138MB)

I was tempted, but ultimately I did not choose to include Riskay’s Smell Yo Dick in the compilation.

I got an e-mail from Amazon reminding me that all those Pepsi Points expire soon, so I need to go download a bunch of MP3s from their store. First one I grabbed was this…

This guy’s a genius, check out his YouTube channel. He makes short little songs about various YouTube clips and they’re catchy as hell.

I know I should be all about my new 360 right now (Left 4 Dead is a blast) but I’m also stealing some time on the side for God Hand on the PS2. I picked it up for peanuts in a bargain bin at Best Buy a couple weeks ago. It’s from Clover, the guys who used to be under the Capcom brand and did some really innovative stuff like Viewtiful Joe and Okami.

God Hand doesn’t have the production values of a top-tier million-selling title but it’s got a fun fighting system and the bizarre humor really hits the mark with me. It’s pretty difficult, I hope I can finish it because I really do want to see all the wacky levels and goofball characters that the game has to offer. There’s an interesting piece from The Escapist on difficult games, and the author talks about God Hand specifically…

Case in point, and what prompted this piece, was my time with Clover’s swan song, God Hand. It’s the sort of swan song that’s is all too aware of the swan’s reputed ability to break a man’s arm with a single beat of its wings: an update of the Double Dragon/Streets of Rage scrolling fighter that kind of wobbles on the edge of tastelessness, then shrugs its shoulders, winks at the camera and jumps off. It’s a modern marvel, mark my words.

It’s also a tad hard. I play a lot of videogames, and I spent longer with at least one boss fight than I did on all of Portal. And while you can turn down the difficulty in theory, in practice you can’t. Easy mode simply isn’t that easy.

But I didn’t care, because, speaking in terms of pure play, God Hand is balanced expertly on the precipice between hard and unfair. You can’t just mash buttons and expect to do well; the game forces you into playing it the way it was designed. The pay off is an amazing high for the relative few able to take it, or, perhaps, the few who need it. And, at least occasionally, I need something like God Hand.

The question becomes, where are you going to get it from? The hard and simple financial math is all over God Hand - in the same way Bioshock had to open up its mechanics to pay for its AAA aesthetics, Clover seemed to have realized that God Hand’s singular, devoted approach would need to satisfy itself with a smaller audience and a B-movie budget. Its campy visuals are mostly a virtue - but virtue doesn’t sell boxes. Clover’s out of business, after all.

Now, I’m not some masochistic hardcore gamer. I’m not ashamed to crank down the difficulty levels on harder stuff like the newer Ninja Gaiden games, etc. So I guess I’m not in love with God Hand so much for its retro-style difficulty, but more for the quirky Clover-ness of it. Of course, I do appreciate the satisfaction one can derive from beating a challenging video game. It’s a bit more fulfilling to beat a boss in God Hand than, say, a boss in Lego Star Wars.

Not that the Lego games aren’t great in their own right - I love them - it’s just that it’s a unique feeling to beat a tough video game and God Hand seems to offer a nice, straightforward, very tough but ultimately fair gaming experience.

I just got onto Xbox Live. I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead with some pals from Dead Lantern. I also downloaded the new HD version of Street Fighter 2 and I’ll probably download Castle Crashers soon.

My Gamertag is SameOldSchmidt if you wanna add me to your friends list.

That’s the actual headline from this news item about a theft near my neighborhood. The mug shot of the chick is pretty great. Where’d her eyebrows go?

A woman suspected of stealing candy bars from a convenience store led a police dog to an apartment near the store.

Around 2:30 a.m., a woman came into the Kwik Shop at 33rd and Holdrege streets and asked to use the phone, said Officer Katie Flood. The clerk gave the woman 35 cents to use the pay phone outside.

The woman came back inside a few minutes later, yelling and punching the clerk in the chest before throwing three candy bars at her and leaving, Flood said.

The woman then returned again, pushing the clerk into the front door and causing her to hit her back on the handle, Flood said. The suspect left the store with 13 candy bars.

A police dog led officers to an apartment building at 1400 North 33rd Street, where police found a frozen pizza in the parking lot, Flood said. The dog then led police to apartment 2, where they heard voices inside.

Police allegedly found Erica Vance, 18, a transient, inside with 13 candy bars in her coat pocket, Flood said.

Vance was arrested and jailed on suspicion of shoplifting, assault and minor in possession of alcohol, Flood said.

Hat-tip, SCS Forum.

Check it out, you can download the official soundtrack to the recently released SSF2T HD Remix from ocremix.org!

Steve’s cat, Monkey (yes, he named his cat Monkey), helped me catch the mouse tonight. Good kitty! She got the mouse by its tail a couple times and we managed to slam a box over it, then I took him to the edge of the block and threw him out. Hopefully it was just the one little dude.