Joe Gamer

Sweet, unassuming slacker Scott Pilgrim recently had his heart broken.  The 23 year old Canadian has lived in a slump for nearly a year, but things are looking up!  His band doesn’t suck as bad anymore and he recently brought home a 17-year old Chinese-Canadian girlfriend, Knives Chau.  Things are easy and life is simple… that is until the vibrantly fashionable Ramona Flowers rollerblades her way into his dreams, literally.  Suddenly confronted with true love, Scott has a choice: grow up and date the woman of his dreams or continue to be the lackluster slacker he has always been.  However, dating Ramona has a caveat: Scott Pilgrim must fight and defeat Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes!

Combining a cute 20-somethings romance with insane video game references and off-the wall humor, the Scott Pilgrim series by Canadian cartoonist Brian Lee O’Malley is one of the biggest surprises this year.  A few months ago I had never heard of the quirky graphic novel.  I happened upon it while watching the movie Kick-Ass in the theater where I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, named after the second book.  I was a little taken aback; the trailer began as a sweet, breezy romance about a normal guy and a girl with pink hair… until the guy flies in from the roof during Scott’s first concert and challenges him to a battle.  Yes.  He flies in.  Literally.  Not only that but sound effects are emoted like the old Adam West Batman series (thock! smack! pow!) as well as an announcer that bellows “KO” at the end of a fight!  It seemed a little too goofy and I put it in the back of my mind.  I steadily started to see more about it and after the second trailer that shows Chris Evans and Brandon Routhe as Evil Exes, I was sold.

I purchased the first two graphic novels and read through them both in an evening before proceeding to do whatever I could to get my grubby hands on the others.  I don’t read many graphic novels due to the cost and length of many series but I certainly made an exception for Scott Pilgrim.  I now own all six volumes and do not regret it, not one bit!

The series is pretty light-hearted with good moments of mature themes as Scott matures into his ill-conceived relationship with Ramona.  Video game references litter the stories, from a “pee” bar when he uses the restroom to the name of his bands (old band is named after an old Sega Genesis game “Kid Chameleon” and his new band is “Sex Bob-omb”).  Logic is thrown right out the door with Japanese roboticists and vegan psychics and all with a kind of tongue-in-cheek reality that seems to ask the reader “What?  Your world isn’t like this?”  It’s all really funny and spastic but the author does not let the witty banter and pop culture references get in the way of telling the story of young love.  Young, stupid, wonderful love.

I admit I liked Scott Pilgrim because I can relate to him.  He’s my age with my sensibilities.  I’m not as lazy or stupid as him, but I get the references and humor as if he were a good friend of mine.  I’ve read that people over the age of 25 would not like it because it feels like an “ADD induced MTV product” but since I neither have ADD or any love for MTV, I don’t really get it.  Instead I would say anyone who enjoys funny stories about the humor of love written by a nerd for nerds, please please give these books a try.  Besides, I know several guys over 25 that love the series anyway!

Comments?  More Scott Pilgrim reviews and previews to come!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

Google is celebrating Pack-Man’s 30th anniversary with a very special logo. Just go to Google.com and wait for the game to load. Then press ‘insert coin’ to play. Once it loads, press insert coin for two-player action with Ms. Pac-Man.

Of all the various logos Google has showcased, this one has to be my favorite.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

This game is a lot of fun. It is even more fun with 3 other players. You have the option to have a couple of local players and play online with extra players. If you loved alien hominic, this is even better. It is really cheap for what you get. I have played it through several times and leveled several characters, mostly because I choose a brand new character every time I start going through the game again with other friends. Customization of weapons is simple enough not to go to forums to understand but complex enough to keep it interesting and get that rpg feeling of upgrading and reward for your skill. Animation is pretty and the fart humor is funny.

Bottom line: No Xbox Live Arcade fan should be caught without this one!

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© 2010, Christian Rios. All rights reserved.

I have been playing Modern Warfare 2 since  release. I have been playing with my buddies from the clan and several other friends since pretty much everybody got the game by now. It is a fun game; however, I am still annoyed with several issues that need to be addressed with the game and IW.net.

First, this matchmaking does not seem to be working for the player to make the experience simpler. The purpose of getting rid of dedicated servers was supposed to make it easier and more approachable to the casual player restricting the interface to a console-like experience. However, it has been completely the opposite effect. Since we are lacking dedicated servers, a player is going to be designated to host. If you are behind a router, as most people are, make sure you forward all the ports that are needed otherwise your NAT is going to be set to “Strict”. If you are a casual gamer, I probably lost you already but you can see my point.

Second, the party system does not seem to work without problems. It is tedious, you have to invite everybody and for some reason some of your friends will not be able to connect to your party. It always takes a couple of tries until somebody can successfully be party leader and invite without issues.

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© 2010, Christian Rios. All rights reserved.

Sometimes when you are bored, you look around for things to do. Personally I have a rather vivid imagination in as much as whenever I endeavor to do something, I like to picture myself in the ‘universe’ that my activity takes place. It’s the minute storyteller in me. For example, when I play either version of Warhammer I like to name my commander and flesh out the stories that my battles tell to me. A game isn’t fun unless I can immerse myself in it. That’s where Pokemon comes in.

Pokemon, for the un-initiated is/was a hugely successful roleplaying game series that started in 1996. As a child, it captured my imagination because you play a 10 year old child that partakes an adventure around the world (or your particular region) to befriend the varied creatures called Pokemon. 13 years, several games and remakes later, I haven’t exactly kept up. I started the game when I was nine years old! Why would I keep wanting to play it as a 22 year old? It is because of the immersive nature of the game. Each game builds on the last. New Pokemon, regions and features are introduced each time, increasing the mythology of the game. There are numerous “trainer types” that the player fights, giving the idea that you can be whatever trainer you want to be, from the innocuous Bug Catcher, to the versatile Cool/Ace Trainer.

No player has the same team, and even if they do that doesn’t guarantee their Pokemon have the same moves and abilities. That makes it worthwhile to me. Look anywhere online. You will find people roleplaying in forums, designing “themselves” as trainers on Deviantart, making “Trainer Cards”. I love it all. Still not sure what trainer I would be classified as, but that is but one source of identity related to the game.

Now I recently delved back into the Pokemon world due to a bit of insistence on my part to my wife Elizabeth. When she was younger the only video game she played other than a Volleyball game on Game Boy was Pokemon Yellow. Now she plays as many or more video games than I do. She has a Dsi my mom bought her for her last birthday, so in order to see if she’d like Pokemon still, I convinced my parents to buy her one of the newest iterations of the Pokemon Series, Pokemon Diamond. Well long story short, she got it and now that’s almost all she plays. Not to be outdone, I picked up Platinum, the companion piece, to compete against her.

Let’s just say she has around 20 hours while I’m clocked in around 9 and a half. So with the hobby gaming scene a little light around Hattiesburg, I find myself drawn to the Pokemon Trading Card Game League that runs in Brandon, Jackson, Laurel and the like. I feel like a kid, but it’s not such a bad thing. Therefore I posit if you are interested in an immersive experience that can spark imagination (at least active imaginations like mine) then don’t hesitate to play Pokemon again. It caters to the role player, the level grinder, the OCD collector. I did and I’m glad of it!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.