I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... but what the fuck is wrong with CNN? I've been watching their coverage of the probable Tsunami that could hit in the wake of the Chilean earthquake and I'm mind boggled at the severe retardation of this news station.
Let me start by saying, I don't watch the news. I can't stand it, regardless of the station. Its depressing, and it focus on carnage, despair or generally bad news. It's like the criteria for the news is, someone has to be getting fucked in the ass (metaphorically, of course) to make the news. Car accident, a family dies? You just made the first story of the evening news. Guy robs a bank because he's desperate for cash and the cops shoot his ass dead? That's a front page headline on tomorrows newspaper. A father kills his wife and kids and then kills himself. You just got a news segment, AND some douchebag "expert" talking about psychological trauma's for at least fifteen minutes.
When the hell did the news become so anarchy oriented? When did we lose focus on what actual NEWS is supposed to be? Things that might be important like relevant world events. The news should be getting people interested in things that MATTER and are IMPORTANT, be it political or social or whatever. The news shouldn't be stroking the boner of those who are somehow engaged on or entertained by these kinds of events.
CNN has been covering this earthquake and tsunami ALL day. Which is warranted, it's pretty big news and I mean there's really not much else going on, that we could even know about because that all would be overshadowed by THE OLYMPICS! I'm not trying to shit on CNN for talking about this in general, just the fact of how they're doing it.
They've got this guy, I didn't catch his name so I will refer to him as Nameless Asshole. This asshole is talking to 'us' (the viewer) like we're a bunch of ass hats who not only never use the internet, but haven't even heard of a computer. CNN wouldn't even be using technology like U-Steam if it wasn't relevant to their news, and somewhat relevant to the people watching at home. They have other sources to gather this information so why go out of the way to use random internet technology when that other technology is probably superior to u-stream. Don't talk to me like I'm some kind of troglodyte who has stub hands and a lisp. (Apologies to any of you whom this description actually applies, I'm just picking an extreme example)
CNN is just waiting for the wave to hit, U-stream is just waiting for the wave to hit. They're waiting for carnage, for destruction? Why? It's simple. Carnage and destruction = ratings. Why go out and rent some shitty movie directed by Roland Emmerich when we can just tune in to CNN to see some chaos and wreckage instead. It's more convenient and it's always fucking on the air! Why the hell is there even a market for this shit?
I understand that, especially in this age of technology, people can get their news wherever the want. That definitely plays into the type of broadcasts that news networks decide to make. They're pandering to target demographics (Fox News is ESPECIALLY vile for this) to squander ratings when You or I may just chose to Google for our news or use any of a plethora of online news sources. Hell, with Twitter, it's a lot easier to get breaking news as its happening than ever before from the word of mouth from those who are actually experiencing it. Why watch this garbage when we can get the news we want from wherever we want it, when we want it!
I guess my point is if this kind of shit is on the air, then clearly there are people watching it. Why? I don't understand at all. Do people just turn off and decide "I'm going to watch CNN" the way I do when I decide to subject myself to an Adam Sandler film? I know lots of people watch the news and not all news stations are as flagrantly unwatchable as CNN is (at least in my opinion, some of you may enjoy CNN and I would have to ask you WHY?!) but really its all the same bullshit. I'm just going to have to end this here because even thinking about it makes me want to throw a new born baby like a football to a hungry starved dog previously owned by Michael Vick and why the fuck would anybody want to do that? Well that's what CNN drives me to feel... fucking ludicrous.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
It only took them 16 years to figure it out...
I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... but has Sega FINALLY pulled their head out of their ass? After years of mediocre-at-best to downright horrible attempts to reinvent the Sonic franchise. They have finally figured it out.
Sega will be releasing Sonic: The Hedgehog 4, Episode I, this summer via the Xbox Live Arcade, Wiiware and PlayStationNetwork.
The thing that is so mind boggling to me about this whole announcement is this is what should've happened all along. Way back when SEGA Dreamcast came out and 2D games were kind of 'over the hill' as they're now making a resurgence under the 'nostalgia' cattegory. Sega should've banked on Sonic The Hedgehog 4 then, rather than the ambitious (and ultimately, flawed) Sonic Adventure.
They should've learned their lesson after Sonic 3D Blast. It was an interesting game, presentation wise, but overall it was pretty forgettable. Rather than the typical side scrolling adventure, you ran through a 3-D stage that you could somewhat 'free roam'. The game had the same kind of game play as its 2-D Side-scrolling brethren but the game was annoying and tedious in parts. Though, as a child, I was not one to complain for it was a new outlet for my Sonic: The Hedgehog addiction.
Like many growing up, I got Sonic 2 with my Sega Genesis system and it quickly became a staple of my video game habit at a very young age. Arguably, Sonic 2 is one of the most memorable video games of all time. I'm sure most people who have played it could speak fondly of it. Those who cant are haters, and they are wrong.
For the short lived Sega Saturn, they came out with "Sonic R"
I really enjoyed this game, despite its simplicity and poor game design. Sonic R was a really fun racing game that incorporated the established characters of the Sonic universe. Each racing stage had short cuts which you could use to gain the upper hand in the race and some of the track designs were really quite cool. Its a game concept I'd love to see them revisit with modern capabilities, rather than what they've been coming out with the Sonic Riders type games. I think a Sonic R approach (with a bit more time put into producing the game...) could be a lot of fun. (more fun than the Sonic & Sega All-Star's racing they're coming out with -yawn-)
Some other failures of Sonic's history would be games like the aforementioned Sonic Adventure for SEGA Dreamcast.
Sonic Adventure was the first grand departure from Sonic's grand formula. A step "forward" from games like Sonic 3D blast. This time stages were a mix of much more 'open' environment while incorporated a stage you had to progress through in the vein of the original sonic games as opposed to the more structured stages that 3D blast had which you could roam back and forth through if you needed to. The biggest flaw in my opinion were the levels which you did not play sonic at all. If its a sonic game, it should star sonic. I don't want to play "Amy Rose" or "Big The Cat" just putting that out there.
Sonic Adventure 2 was much better. Featuring a "Hero" and "Dark" Story, allowing you to play Sonic, Tails or Knuckles in Hero or Shadow, Rouge or Dr.Robotnik Eggman...
(She was some kind of bat... cat looking thing with wings, and cleavage?)
While I'm there, why the hell did they ever have to change Dr. Robotnik in the first place? And why the hell couldn't they come up with something better than Dr.Eggman?! Jesus titty-fucking christ... anyway.
Sonic Adventure 2 had eliminated most of the annoying flaws of its predecessor. Though, I still didn't care for the Rouge levels, playing as Robotn- I mean, Eggman, was fun. You got to shoot missiles and blow some stuff up. Shadow is pretty much an "evil" sonic but he ends up being good in the end and you work with Sonic to fight some evil lizard thing in space as "Super Sonic and Super Shadow" with the power of chaos emeralds... bla bla bla. It had a pretty kick ass final boss song which made it all feel pretty amazing when I was 13. It's also worth mentioning for the sake of this blog that Sonic Adventure 2 was a pretty kick ass game and really the only great sonic game that's come out in the last 10 years.
What followed was not.
Games like Sonic Heroes, an elaborated "team" concept of the Sonic Adventure style game play. However, they took a 'more is more' approach. Instead of controlling one character at once, you controlled three. And you had 4 teams to chose from so there was plenty of shit to go around in this forgettable adventure. Now the game wasn't outright terrible but it was hardly great, and a continued push in the wrong direction for Sonic but I suppose as the old saying goes, you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
The 15th aniversary of Sonic was marked with the release of "Sonic The Hedgehog" a game I was looking forward to but again, was ultimately a fail on SEGA's behalf. Continuing with their 'more is more' approach to the Sonic games. Sonic The Hedgehog had three different stories that followed Sonic, Shadow and a new character named Silver (they were getting super imaginative at this point too). The game had some interesting ideas but overall was overly ambitious and failed to find its mark because of that. Not to mention numerous design flaws and glitches made this game annoying as fuck to play.
Next in line was Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii which was seen as a general improvement over more-recent installments of the Sonic franchise. Any of the momentum it gained was probably ruined by its sequel Sonic and the Black Knight which shook things up by giving sonic A SWORD! Further attempts to rearrange the Sonic paradigm included Sonic Unleashed where Sonic would turn into a "werehog" yeah... I don't think turning into a werewolf did the Zelda franchise any favors either.
Now my research has released a common thread or excuse that the developers have used and that's more or less that the games were rushed. You'd think that if time was a factor in a game being less successful more than once. You would either, delay a game to ensure its proper completion or give yourself more time in production to make sure that you got the job done right. Just saying.
I think Sonic's appearance in the awesome Super Smash Brows Brawl was a step in the right direction toward restoring a semblance of Sonic's awesome, because lets be honest. Sonic would run circles around Mario in a fight, literally.
(Sonic totally about to own Mario in his own game)
SEGA should never have bothered to try and re-invent the wheel with Sonic. Sonic doesn't need an epic plot. All sonic needs is to run really fast, jump on some shit and collect rings and chaos emeralds to stop Dr. Roboeggmanik from turning those cute fuzzy animals into evil robotic pawns for his evil deeds. Turning into Super Sonic and that's it! Hopefully Sonic 4 will remind some of us old school gamers, and sonic fans alike, why Sonic was really cool in the first place.
Until next time...
PEACE!
Sega will be releasing Sonic: The Hedgehog 4, Episode I, this summer via the Xbox Live Arcade, Wiiware and PlayStationNetwork.
The thing that is so mind boggling to me about this whole announcement is this is what should've happened all along. Way back when SEGA Dreamcast came out and 2D games were kind of 'over the hill' as they're now making a resurgence under the 'nostalgia' cattegory. Sega should've banked on Sonic The Hedgehog 4 then, rather than the ambitious (and ultimately, flawed) Sonic Adventure.
They should've learned their lesson after Sonic 3D Blast. It was an interesting game, presentation wise, but overall it was pretty forgettable. Rather than the typical side scrolling adventure, you ran through a 3-D stage that you could somewhat 'free roam'. The game had the same kind of game play as its 2-D Side-scrolling brethren but the game was annoying and tedious in parts. Though, as a child, I was not one to complain for it was a new outlet for my Sonic: The Hedgehog addiction.
Like many growing up, I got Sonic 2 with my Sega Genesis system and it quickly became a staple of my video game habit at a very young age. Arguably, Sonic 2 is one of the most memorable video games of all time. I'm sure most people who have played it could speak fondly of it. Those who cant are haters, and they are wrong.
For the short lived Sega Saturn, they came out with "Sonic R"
I really enjoyed this game, despite its simplicity and poor game design. Sonic R was a really fun racing game that incorporated the established characters of the Sonic universe. Each racing stage had short cuts which you could use to gain the upper hand in the race and some of the track designs were really quite cool. Its a game concept I'd love to see them revisit with modern capabilities, rather than what they've been coming out with the Sonic Riders type games. I think a Sonic R approach (with a bit more time put into producing the game...) could be a lot of fun. (more fun than the Sonic & Sega All-Star's racing they're coming out with -yawn-)
Some other failures of Sonic's history would be games like the aforementioned Sonic Adventure for SEGA Dreamcast.
Sonic Adventure was the first grand departure from Sonic's grand formula. A step "forward" from games like Sonic 3D blast. This time stages were a mix of much more 'open' environment while incorporated a stage you had to progress through in the vein of the original sonic games as opposed to the more structured stages that 3D blast had which you could roam back and forth through if you needed to. The biggest flaw in my opinion were the levels which you did not play sonic at all. If its a sonic game, it should star sonic. I don't want to play "Amy Rose" or "Big The Cat" just putting that out there.
Sonic Adventure 2 was much better. Featuring a "Hero" and "Dark" Story, allowing you to play Sonic, Tails or Knuckles in Hero or Shadow, Rouge or Dr.
(She was some kind of bat... cat looking thing with wings, and cleavage?)
While I'm there, why the hell did they ever have to change Dr. Robotnik in the first place? And why the hell couldn't they come up with something better than Dr.Eggman?! Jesus titty-fucking christ... anyway.
Sonic Adventure 2 had eliminated most of the annoying flaws of its predecessor. Though, I still didn't care for the Rouge levels, playing as Robotn- I mean, Eggman, was fun. You got to shoot missiles and blow some stuff up. Shadow is pretty much an "evil" sonic but he ends up being good in the end and you work with Sonic to fight some evil lizard thing in space as "Super Sonic and Super Shadow" with the power of chaos emeralds... bla bla bla. It had a pretty kick ass final boss song which made it all feel pretty amazing when I was 13. It's also worth mentioning for the sake of this blog that Sonic Adventure 2 was a pretty kick ass game and really the only great sonic game that's come out in the last 10 years.
What followed was not.
Games like Sonic Heroes, an elaborated "team" concept of the Sonic Adventure style game play. However, they took a 'more is more' approach. Instead of controlling one character at once, you controlled three. And you had 4 teams to chose from so there was plenty of shit to go around in this forgettable adventure. Now the game wasn't outright terrible but it was hardly great, and a continued push in the wrong direction for Sonic but I suppose as the old saying goes, you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
The 15th aniversary of Sonic was marked with the release of "Sonic The Hedgehog" a game I was looking forward to but again, was ultimately a fail on SEGA's behalf. Continuing with their 'more is more' approach to the Sonic games. Sonic The Hedgehog had three different stories that followed Sonic, Shadow and a new character named Silver (they were getting super imaginative at this point too). The game had some interesting ideas but overall was overly ambitious and failed to find its mark because of that. Not to mention numerous design flaws and glitches made this game annoying as fuck to play.
Next in line was Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii which was seen as a general improvement over more-recent installments of the Sonic franchise. Any of the momentum it gained was probably ruined by its sequel Sonic and the Black Knight which shook things up by giving sonic A SWORD! Further attempts to rearrange the Sonic paradigm included Sonic Unleashed where Sonic would turn into a "werehog" yeah... I don't think turning into a werewolf did the Zelda franchise any favors either.
Now my research has released a common thread or excuse that the developers have used and that's more or less that the games were rushed. You'd think that if time was a factor in a game being less successful more than once. You would either, delay a game to ensure its proper completion or give yourself more time in production to make sure that you got the job done right. Just saying.
I think Sonic's appearance in the awesome Super Smash Brows Brawl was a step in the right direction toward restoring a semblance of Sonic's awesome, because lets be honest. Sonic would run circles around Mario in a fight, literally.
(Sonic totally about to own Mario in his own game)
SEGA should never have bothered to try and re-invent the wheel with Sonic. Sonic doesn't need an epic plot. All sonic needs is to run really fast, jump on some shit and collect rings and chaos emeralds to stop Dr. Roboeggmanik from turning those cute fuzzy animals into evil robotic pawns for his evil deeds. Turning into Super Sonic and that's it! Hopefully Sonic 4 will remind some of us old school gamers, and sonic fans alike, why Sonic was really cool in the first place.
Until next time...
PEACE!
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