Smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash

I am bored with all my games. I have a lot of games to play, yet whenever I start playing them I get bored really quickly. I just started Metroid Prime 3 and even though the controls are really good and the game is interesting, I haven't made much progress. I'm having trouble finishing Phoenix Wright even though the story should be drawing me in. I even rarely log onto b.net, but that's mostly because I suck now.

The reason for this is that I can't wait for Super Smash Brothers Brawl! Smash consumes my thoughts. Sadly enough, I think about it all the time nowadays, so it's almost at the point where it's guaranteed to be a let down. It was my favourite Gamecube game and we spent countless hours playing it in University. It has depth and variety and most importantly, it's fun.

The Japanese version has already been released, so there are no more surprises in content. The number of new characters is overwhelming and even includes surprises such as Snake, Sonic and Olimar, Pit and R.O.B. My main character, Roy, was one of only four characters removed from this version :( . He was replaced with Ike, which appears to be a similar character, but I might take this chance to pick a new main as I was known for using the C stick to spam Roy's side smash relentlessly (and somewhat unskillfully).

Unfortunately, I will have much more difficulty employing this strategy. First of all, I plan to use the Wiimote + nunchuk control combination which means I won't have the cruth that is the C-stick. I don't own any wavebirds, so I have little choice in this matter. The other control schemes don't seem as good. The other change is that repeatedly spamming the same attack decreases the damage of that attack.

In general, the gameplay mechanics changed quite a bit. There are no more advanced techniques, making it easier for beginners to play. Other example include the automatic ledge grab, needing a higher % for knockouts and the slower pace. The biggest change is the introduction of the smash ball. This should really mix things up as everyone will try to go for these when they appear so they can pull off their Final Smash.

Having these "fair" (as in fair definition 8, not forward-air) gameplay mechanics might mean the gameplay is not deep, but the Penny Arcade guys had some really good thoughts in their recent blog post about the game balance. Games like MarioKart and Mario Party are "communist" in the sense that they allow for random outcomes and help the losers. Luckily, they don't get that feeling with Smash.

So, in hopes of playing Smash the way it was meant to be played, I'm planning on holding Super Smash Sundays. This means that I'll have an open invite every Sunday afternoon, at my Toronto home, for a Smash party with junk food included. The first one is March 16th and we'll see if we can keep it up week to week!

SMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Learning Chinese

My Chinese skills suck. It's shameful in fact. Writing is hopeless for me. I can read basic words, but given a newspaper, I have no chance. I can speak some, but my Canadian accent is a constant source of amusement for native speakers. I can understand basic Mandarin, but a newscast I have difficulty with.

I suppose it's partly my fault. I speak mostly English at home, even when spoken to in Chinese. On the other hand, I took Saturday school all the way to high school. When I was younger I always resented the fact that Friday nights were always spent studying. Now I resent the fact that I didn't work harder. But I wasn't a complete slacker and I did end up learning quite a bit. I just wished I learned more.

Lately, some of my friends have been signing up for language classes. A lot of them signed up for this in the summer, which I thought was insane, since I didn't want to give up my summer weekends cooped up indoors. So I decided to start taking classes in the winter with the Confucius Institute at Renison College, which is on the Waterloo campus. Class is only two and half hours every Thursday.

So far it's been quite good. There are only four students in the class which really accelerates the learning process. The teacher is excellent and knows how to teach and interact with the students. The class is mostly focused on reading and conversing, which I suppose are the best skills to know first. The down side is that they are teaching "Mainland" Chinese. I'm not used to their accent and some of their words. Since they are Mainland, the writing is simplified, which is harder for me to learn, since I had previously only learned traditional. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with the course. Now, if only my language skills improved to a point where I'm good enough to use it!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day. I spent tonight in a classroom and came home to an empty house, but it's all good. Kitty and I will postpone Valentine's since we're in different cities. Keeping with tradition, here's a Nintendo themed Valentine Day card.



This set is not as good as last year's, but it is a lot better than this horrendous set. This is an example of Capcom whoring out their IP in the worse possible way.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This year I'm a bit lonely since I'm spending it away from family. My sister is in NYC and my family is in Toronto, while I'm in Waterloo. I decided not to drive home partly because of the weather and because it's a weekday. I'm always tempted to take the day off of work, but I have never done so. Has anyone ever missed school or work because of Chinese New Year?

But the craziest news today is the Shaq-Marion trade. The Suns were my favourite team to watch, but now they won't nearly be as exciting. Marion was great on the fast break and now that Shaq is on the team, I don't see as many fast breaks happening. I guess he could be the one that initiates the fast break with the rebound, but marion was one that could either start (by rebounding or steal) and finish fast breaks. Shaq can only start them. Will Phoenix's half court offense be better? I don't think Shaq will draw many doubles anymore to help Phoenix. He will just get in the way of Nash/Amare's pick and roll. No team is going to cover Shaq when he's away from the basket. This means there might be an extra help defender when Nash does his pick and roll, limiting his choices.

On the defensive end, Marion was by far Phoenix's best man to man defender. Now they have to use Raja Bell in that role and increase his minutes. Shaq is suppose to help with the interior defense, but I have my doubts as to whether he can stay out of foul trouble. He also won't be able to play big minutes, so Amare will end up at C most of the time anyway.

And the biggest issue is Shaq's health. He is way overweight and has multiple injuries. By the time playoffs roll around, Shaq could be injured and then this trade will be for naught. Next year it'll be even worse. The year after Shaq will probably be retired.

Then the salary cap problem of bringing Shaq onboard. The Sun's owner doesn't want to pay the luxury tax, but by bringing Shaq on, he's on the hook for $20 million for two more years. Two more years after this one.

In conclusion, I'm sad they broke up this entertaining Suns team. :_(

Soju and Super Sunday

I always thought that drinking Soju was not as bad as other types of alcohol and wouldn't lend itself to vomiting. Boy was I wrong. The Soju was strong last night, and I drank quickly. Plus I'm a light weight, which doesn't help. I felt really bad about the mess, and tipped the guy and extra $20, but I don't know if that was enough.

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of Madden for the last few weeks. I've never played a Madden game before getting Madden 07 for Wii and with the football playoffs on, it made me want to play a season. I picked Pittsburgh because of Hines Ward and started the Franchise mode. There was all this stuff about preseason drills that seemed boring, so I skipped them all. Of course I was going to try to play for a perfect season and after finding out that you can restart games before they are complete without penalty, it was gravy. Almost.

The most frustrating thing is the AI. Sometimes, Madden will get into a state where the computer doesn't care and will try to win no matter what. It'll get interceptions out of nowhere and your players will fumble for no good reason. It's my least favourite part about Madden. Madden 07's game mechanics are broken as well. The running game is so strong compared to the passing game. Breaking tackles while on the run is simple (and fun), but a little overpowering. For passing, the defending players move so much faster than a thrown ball, so that half the time the safeties are in perfect position for a pick. But the weird thing is that most of the time the safeties will drop the pick for no good reason. It's almost random as to when an interception will occur.

At the end of the regular season, Big Ben had a QB rating in the 70's, with 25 touchdowns and 25 picks. I practically only threw to Hines Ward for the whole season since the rest of the Pittsburgh receivers are crap. I threw a lot of screens to him as well because his ability to break tackles is greater than even my HB or FB. Willie Parker, my HB, also ended up with about 1500 yards carried with an average of 4.5 yards. It was helped by Pittsburgh having what seems to be the best O-line in the game, so I also resorted to a lot of Quarterback sneaks on 3rd and 4th down with inches to go. They also have one of the best defences in the game and it was fun playing the MLB defending against the pass and the run.

For the Super Bowl, I faced off against NY Giants (how appropriate). It took me 4 or 5 tries before I could win, since it seemed like the computer AI was cheating so much. I eventually won in a 3 OT game. I'm horrible at kicking field goals, as it is based on motion controls, and I shanked two game winning field goals in the 4th quarter and OT. On my final drive I forgoed the field goal and went for a TD to Hines Ward on a Play Action from 5 yards out. Finally, I can stop playing.

Anyway, all this football talk is because the Super Bowl is this weekend. The Perfect Patriots will probably win and make history. My only hope is that the game is as entertaining as my Madden Super Bowl.

Snow Day

Everyone at my work left at noon today on account of the bad weather. It's nice to get an unexpected break once a while. The drive back to Toronto was tough though. I haven't seen so many trucks in the fast lane in my life. It only took 1.5 hours, so it wasn't horrible.

The extra time off allowed me to catch up on the US election process. I don't follow it daily, but I follow it more than Canadian politics. Recently Guiliani stepped out of the race, which was a little surprising to me. I thought he would be a strong contender. Right now it looks like McCain will will win the Republican leadership and Obama with a slight lead over Hilary. Personally, if I could vote, I think I would vote for Obama. To look at it simply, I think he would make a good leader. Even though I don't think the Republicans have a chance, I think John "Hero" McCain would make a decent leader too. He supports more troops in Iraq, which I think is needed until things settle down. It's easy for me to say, since I'm not American. If Clinton wins it'll be interesting to see what kind of role Bill would take in the White House.

From a gaming point of view (yes, I realize there are more important issues), this article outlines the candidates views on gaming. Obama and McCain come out on top...coincidence? Obama also happens to support net neutrality and "openness". This really catches my attention, but whether he can actually pull it off is another matter.

I think it would be even more interesting to see a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton democratic ticket. That could really be groundbreaking!