Clover, how I miss thee.

If the loss of a truly artistic videogame development team was enough reason for you to mourn the dissolution of Clover, then good for you. I have a much more selfish and greedy reason why I hope CAPCOM didn't decide to split them apart.

Take the sensibilities of something like Okami, and apply it to the engine that you see in the game below:

Makes you wish, don't it?

Epic Fail: I picked Elves because I thought they'd be cheap.

When the news broke that Eventide's Nettle Sentinel was a 2/2 Elf Warrior for one green mana at common, somewhere deep down inside I rejoiced.

When I heard that it untapped itself when you played a green spell, I looked at my Heritage Druid based Elf deck and I rejoiced.

When I heard that there's a new green chase rare that's "in-tribe," I printed a picture of Michael J. Flores, tacked it to a cardboard box, looked for a knife, and proceeded to stab said picture with my knife. I was fueled by the murderous intent of some dark, forgotten, Summerian god.

Damn you Wizards! My wallet hates you.

Moriarty does it again.

Unlike Harry Knowles, Moriarty generally tries to stay away from hyperbole or any other reference to orgasms or release of reproductive bodily fluids.

He's a great reviewer -- I know that -- his latest one however, still managed to catch me off guard.

I am now more than eager to watch Hellboy 2, and The Dark Knight. Sad that Mr. Ledger is dead and all that. Oh well, such is life.

On a tangent, yes, before watching some movies, I let others think for me. I like going to something with preconceptions and prejudices. That way, if I'm proven wrong, it's always a pleasant surprise. (Why is tricking one's self such a round-a-bout process sometimes?)

Having said that, will the two comic book movies manage to surprise me? I hope. I wish.

It was alive at some point. Alas, no longer.

I'm sad that the possible Marvel MMO was ultimately killed by a Faceless Microsoft Executive (tm). I'm even more depressed by news that development reached the point where in the X-Mansion was done and fully explorable.

CMix: It's no secret that you're an avid gamer. Is there any comic character or title that you'd still like to see in a videogame that hasn't popped up yet?

BB: Well, you're talking to one of the executive producers of the ill-fated Marvel MMO that went away. I have my laptop here, and on it I have the "X-Mansion" level fully completed that only I and five other people have access to play. It's gorgeous and fantastic and no one will ever see it. So I feel bad, because I think that MMO was a phenomenal idea that was extremely well executed and it went away because some guy at Microsoft who we'll never know pulled the plug on it before it even got underway.

But adding to that, I think that they should take each of these Marvel events and turn them into a videogame franchise. "Civil War," which will be part of the next Ultimate Alliance, "House of M," "Secret Wars"...

CMix: "Secret Invasion?"

BB: "Secret Invasion." Absolutely.

And yes, Bendis is a marketing, merchandising genius. Worried about running out of MMO expansion ideas? Then tie the MMO to your comic universe's yearly "big event."

Smart bastard.

iPod gaming: perfect for geeks with real-life obligations

Damn you real life! You have parted me from my distractions. Not that it's a bad thing, but this rant space is suffering as a consequence.

Anyhow, time for a quick update. For those who are too busy with real-life and can't manage to sneak their DS lites and their PSP's past office security, I suggest you switch to iPod gaming. What games on the iPod you ask?

Behold: Song Summoner: the Unsung Heroes

My favorite part about the game? The game manages to take advantage of something that comes natural with it's platform. Sure, DS games make use of touch screen tech, PSP games take advantage of the processing and the disk space, this one takes advantage of the fact that it's on a music device:

Your Tune Troopers allies can also be "powered up" by listing to the tracks used to create them.

Think of it as Monster Rancher Portable, only a lot cooler.

D&D 4th ed, or, this game is for kids again.

One of the major difficulties of the 3rd edition of Dungeons &Dragons was the bookkeeping that was involved. It wasn't that the rules were too complex or too difficult to grasp that it alienated folks. The three core rules were still there:

1. Roll a die, beat a number, get to do something cool.
2. It's a game where the rules break the rules. Improving means you get to break more rules.
3. It's a game that's allow your group to bend the rules to your liking.

The main problem with the way the 3rd edition of the d20 system worked was that as you progressed through the game, book keeping became more and more tedious.

Gone were the days when your level 10 character fit in your piece of scrap paper you tore from your notebook. Most players of the game had to use laptops and excel spreadsheets to keep things in track.

The 3rd edition felt like a game that was trying too hard to match the age of it's audience: mostly college freshmen, and twenty-something yuppies with laptops and better-than-average math skills.

I like that the 4th edition feels "dumbed down." I like that it's "simplified." If you look up Dungeons and Dragons on Wikipedia or on Google images, you'll see that old nostalgic geeks were never the target audience.

The cover said: "ages 10 and up."

How old were you when you started on D&D? How old really? I was 12.

In the age of MMORPGs, and the concepts of a "striker," and a "healer," and a "nuker" is generally understood by our internet cafe going youth, the game is going in the direction where it should go.

Note that I said it only feels dumbed down. The new system does have it's technical merits. Aside from the multi-classing Feats being slightly half-baked, I really, like how they trimmed the skill list, changed the saving throw, and added other parameters of defense. The lack of "true" multi-classing is my only problem with the 4th edition, everything else in it was a nice effort in streamlining.

As for the books, I feel that they could've organized the information in the Player's Handbook a bit better. For instance, the class powers could've been in a separate chapter called "Powers." Seeing long lists that look like Spell tables after the class description was a bit jarring. No, wait, let me rephrase that: it made it look like a mess - it took me a while to get used to, and it really made me hate the editor of the book for not knowing what the term "Handbook" in the book's title meant.

Aside from those minor problems. I like it. More importantly, the kid in me likes it.

I've learned that when it comes to geekish pleasures, that's what really matters.

PS: I still miss the Bard. I have a feeling though, that they just saved other more "complicated," non-MMORPG analogous roles for the other non-basic, non-introductory books they'll be printing in the future. New player acquisition is the goal after all -- "keep it simple stupid" and all that -- and the Bard is anything but simple.

I'm still alive

It's been some time but I'm back, and I'm ready to blog... I blame work.

Anyhow, there's a lot of stuff to cover, and I'll try to play catchup with the next few posts. The 4th edition of D&D is out. The first preview pack of the next Magic: the Gathering expansion, Eventide is out. Pro Tour Hollywood jusr wrapped up and there's a hell of a lot of new deck techs from that event. Block season is brewing. GTA4 machinama is floating all over the web. Battlestar Galactica is getting weird. Naruto and Bleach are both doing some big reveals in the manga part of their franchises. Oh, and Tower of Druaga is a nice romp.

But, before I try to post on all of that, I'll go with the most immediate geek-gasm that's causing waves of gamma radiation to float around the geek-o-sphere: The Incredible Hulk.

Forget about the Tony Stark cameo in the film, feel bad that the Captain America cameo didn't make it past the cutting room. Yep. Cap was supposed to be there.

Too bad the Newsarama article that broke the news, didn't specify if the Steve Rogers - Bruce banner encounter involved a frozen, thawed, or newly defrosted Cap. I'm betting that if the scene makes it to the DVD, we're going to see a frozen Mr. Rogers. After all, Marvel Studios has already made public their intentions of making the Captain America film be set in WWII, so a still frozen Cap in a film that's supposed to feature the Hulk as it's main star makes sense.

So what Captain America reference in Hulk made it past the editors?
-The Super Soldier serum
-Erm, SHIELD?
-Dr. Reinstein.
-Dr. Samson
-Samuel Stern

I'm pretty sure there's more, but that's what I've caught so far.

I like that Marvel has their own studios now, and that they're now able to control the content of their films more. I also like their attempt at establishing a movie universe, where people make cameos, things are set, and everything links with one another.

On a related note, I also like how they're giving the actors involved some power over the story of the movie. I hear that Ed Norton was co-responsible for the screenplay of Hulk.

Well, Hulk's getting mixed reviews now, and being a fanboy I don't really mind. It's supposed to be an action movie, filled with gratuitous pop-corn moments of HULK SMASH.

If Hulk wasn't as fine-tuned or compelling as say Iron Man, then factoring in the freedom that Marvel's given the actors, it only proved that Robert Downey Jr. has a better sense of story than Ed Norton. At least Norton and Marvel Studios managed to bring the franchise as far away from Ang Lee as possible. I'm happy with that.

Here's to hoping Marvel hires someone decent to be Thor, and that it's every bit the epic-fantasy that they're making it to be. Personally, I'd rather they follow the "Ultimate" version of Thor... you know, the one where we're really not sure if he's a kooky nut, or if he really is a norse god. You can manage to mix epic fantasy with regular trips to the mental institution right?

Now that Marvel Studios is so dead set on building their 24 frame, silverscreen universe, they better manage to buy back their other characters from other studios, so that they could get them done right.

I don't know about you, but Spidey has to swing past the Baxter Building, Logan has to punch Nick in the face for being an ass, Attorney Matt Murdoch better get hired as a PR charity case by Mr. Stark, and by god people have to know that Galactus is NOT A CLOUD!

PS. I heard somewhere that Mr Norton didn't attend the premiere due to a hissy fit he decided to throw. Somehow. the "cut" he wanted of Hulk wasn't the one that was shown. Sorry, Ed, the problems that some reviewers had with the movie was with the lines, not the pacing. So I'm thinking it's more of the screen writer's fault (erm, you), not the editor's.