"AND can we PLEASE have some films about gay characters that don't involve them getting murdered for being gay? or dying of AIDS? Gay people live happily ever after too."

Yeah man, the ending to this movie was too much of a downer. I know the real Harvey Milk actually was assassinated by Dan White, but, man, just 'cause it happened like that IRL doesn't mean it's gotta be like that in the movie. The ending should be this:

Dan White comes out of the closet to his wife, divorces her, and becomes a reformed advocate of gay rights.

Harvey Milk lives to be 100, along with his lover Scott Smith. (Who does *not* die of AIDs, 'kay?)

Everyone lives happily ever after, cue rap music and credits.

http://www.archive.org/details/ird059

These are recordings of "number stations", strange coded broadcasts that people sometimes catch on their radio devices. Wikipedia can probably explain it better than I can:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_stations

Basically, it's like listening in on some James Bond shit. Very interesting,... and spooky, especially if you listen to them in the dark. O_O

Ugh...

This game looked better without a story.

Also, the new "Transformers" summons are incredibly retarded. Please tell me that red car isn't Ifrit. >_>

One of the things I hate about Marvel Comics is Captain America. He is the worst hero they have, because he's always saddled with shit writers who use him as a "voice" for social commentary. The only thing that can redeem the Marvel Universe for Captain America's existence is Tony Stark. Fuck yeah, Iron Man.

What I like about Superman, aside from the fact that he is the *original* American Icon, is that he has slightly smarter writers. Instead of using the character to comment on society, they use the story. And even when the commentary was less subtle, as in the character's early days, it was usually awesome, because he would act on the issues instead of whining about them. The result was usually hilarious.

"Post-Modern" Captain America is a pussy compared to "Depression Era" Superman.

Okay, so this guy named Orson Scott Card had a hand in conceiving the background story to the game or something. I'm really pissed 'cuz he's intensely anti-homosexual, and I'm going to boycott the game even though it apparently doesn't demonstrate a smidgeon of these homophobic views. I'm also going to demonize Microsoft and Epic for hyping the involvement of a known homophobe during the marketing of the game, even though the same homophobe wrote a revered work of science-fiction called "Ender's Game."

Folks, is this what you call "social responsibility" in gaming? Attacking a game not for its content but because one guy you hate made a minor contribution? Should we also condemn the compositions of Richard Wagner because he was a known anti-semite? Should we also demonize Martin Luther (not the black dude, the Lutheran) for his own anti-semitism, ignoring his contribution to religious reformation?

I haven't played "Shadow Complex," so I'm not sure if it's anti-homosexual or not. None of these "critics" have brought forward any examples of anti-homosexuality from the game itself, so I'm assuming they simply heard of Card's "involvement" and are boycotting it for that reason. Microsoft, in marketing "Shadow Complex," was clearly trying to capitalize on Card's contributions to science-fiction rather than his politics.

Anyways, it's not like "Shadow Complex" is "Resident Evil 6: Attack of teh Gays." Stop your self-righteous posturing and enjoy the game for what is, which is apparently a fairly good Metroid throwback. And listen to "Der Ring des Nibelungen." Its composer may have been a terrible anti-semite, but he wrote damn good music. In a way, it's kind of comforting to know that such an awful human being could create such wonderful art.

EDIT: The Card/Complex connection seems to be that the game was based on his 2006 novel "Empire." The book is certainly political, depicting a future Civil War between the American Left- and Right-Wing. However, it doesn't seem to be particularly anti-homosexual. I can also see why someone would want to make a game or movie based on this material. Who wouldn't be interested in a fictional universe where Democrats and Republicans blow the shit out of each other? It's like something out of a Paul Verhoeven movie.

1.) Did you know that some companies are now pushing Bluray street dates ahead of DVD street dates in some underhanded attempt to get people to switch formats? Yup. Fortunately, this tactic is being applied mostly to shitty movies like "Imagine That."

2.) Did you know that some companies are cutting down the number of extras on their DVDs on purpose, to make the Bluray version seem better? They certainly are. The Bluray version of "The Dark Knight" has a 50 minute making-of documentary. For the DVD version, they cut the documentary down to about 20 minutes. What a kick in the nuts for people who opted to pay the extra $10 for the so-called "Special Edition."

3.) Bluray is not theater quality. While 1080p is state-of-the-art for home video, it can't compare to the quality of an actual film print. Whether you watch videos on DVD or Bluray, both experiences are a step down from the actual Big Screen.

4.) Bluray player firmware sucks and constantly needs to be updated.

5.) The "new generation" of features being promised through Bluray actually take away from the movie-watching experience. Ever felt the need to participate in a chat room while watching a film? Uh-huh.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll post more later, or maybe not.

Here is a list I've assembled of games I consider great:

1. Lunar: Eternal Blue (SCD)
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
4. Shinobi (PS2)
5. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
6. Shining Force II
7. Popful Mail (SCD)
8. Breath of Fire III
9. Darkwing Duck
10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (NES)
11. Crackdown (360)
12. Street Fighter III: Any Edition
13. Mega Man 8
14. Shadow Dancer (Genesis)
15. Aladdin (Genesis)
16. Final Fantasy VI
17. Lufia II
18. Tales of Vesperia
19. Wild Arms
20. Mortal Kombat II
21. Shinobi (Arcade)
22. Dragon Quest VI
23. Robocop 2 (Arcade)
24. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Xbox)
25. Paper Mario 2
26. Sunset Riders
27. Dick Tracy (Genesis)
28. Rescue Rangers (NES)
29. Final Fantasy III (NES)
30. Clock Tower (SNES)
31. Super Mario 64
32. Sonic Adventure 2
33. Super C (NES)
34. Ninja Gaiden III (Famicom)
35. Silpheed (SCD)
36. Ys: Ark of Napishtim
37. Dracula X (PC Engine)
38. New Ghostbusters II (Famicom)
39. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (Gameboy)
40. World Series Baseball (Genesis)
41. Gears of War 2
42. Mega Man X2
43. X-Men 2: The Clone Wars
44. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
45. Breath of Fire II (SNES)
46. Flashback (SCD)
47. Final Fantasy Adventure (Gameboy)
48. Earthbound Zero
49. Oblivion
50. Mario Kart: Double Dash

This isn't the definitive lists of greatest games ever. It's not even the definitive ranking of my favorite games. Trying to assemble such lists would be a futile and impossible task. Instead, this is a list of games I love, ranked more or less scientifically and more or less arbitrarily. Some titles I sought out, and with some I had to sit down and think until they popped into my head. Every title on here is what I would rate a '10/10,' nothing less.

I went to the freezer to get a popsicle. It's one of those brands where they don't show the name or color of the flavor on the wrapping. I frantically held up each popsicle before the light on the kitchen ceiling, to see the color through the wrapping. All the cherries were gone.

But then I woke up and it all turned out to be a dream. Phew.

This is no surprise, since "RE5" sucked so much shit. Will Capcom do a reboot? Another sequel with crap co-op? Will it be another "RE4" clone or will it be somewhere between that game and "RE2?" Here are some ideas:

- No co-op. It blows ass. Fuck having to share the game with a computer or another player. In the next game, my guy better be alone. I want to feel the dread of solitude in a hostile environment, and that just isn't possible when you have some moron dumb fuck tagging along. "OH HAI LET'S SWAP AMMO" "OH HAI I'LL SHOOT THAT GUY" "OH YOU WANT THOSE ITEMS?"

- No Wesker or Umbrella. "Code Veronica's" biggest mistake was opening that old wound and leaving the thread of SUPER WESKER open for a retarded game like "Resident Evil 5" to resolve. Remember when the fourth game gave us the promise of a new nemesis beyond Umbrella, of being able to leave all that stupid plot baggage behind? Let's go back to that.

- No more randomly distributed ammo. Time to put the SURVIVAL back in 'survival-horror.' "RE4" was fun with its relentless action, but that piece of shit fifth game made me realize that its scarier to have to keep track of your ammo than to blindly be able to fire it off without any repercussion. Besides, counting bullets makes your character bad ass like John McClane.

- Bring back "RE4's" inventory system, k?

- Here's a bold experiment: have us run around some elaborate structure again and give us an actual reason to extensively look at the map screen. Bring back the satisfaction of solving some giant area after spending hours running around it. Also, retreading "clean" hallways means you can catch us off guard by repopulating them with enemies or "stinger" moments. One of the greatest moments in part two was when you walked through that boarded window hallway for the second time and...but I won't spoil that for people who are reading this and haven't played that masterpiece. (Which kicks part five's pussy ass by the way.)

- Ditch the power-up shop. It was novel in "RE4," but bringing back some discipline might be a nice change. Also, having some random nut peddle ammo and weapons detracts from the whole, you know, "survival" thing.

- No more Chris or Jill or Claire or Leon or Barry or...fuck it, no more returning characters. Remember how the second game expanded the mythology by bringing in new blood? How about trying that again? This goes for villains too, which means it doubly goes for that faggot Wesker. (Worst fucking character ever.) I will even rebel against bringing back the awesome William Birkin or Chief Irons. This series needs new protagonists and antagonists. PERIOD.

- Let's cut down on the super-powered villains. I mentioned Chief Irons. He was pretty disturbing and scary...and he had no super powers! Same for Alfred Ashford. Let's go back to the psychology well instead of the "guys with DBZ powers" well.

That's all for now. "Resident Evil" can kick ass again, Capcom...if you want it to.

FOOT-NOTE: I'm of two minds about ink ribbons. I find it bold when video games force you to think about each save, as in "Lunar: Eternal Blue" or all the old-school "Resident Evil" games. On the other hand, if Capcom adopts infinite saves as a concession to keep the game marketable to mainstream tastes...that's okay by me too. What matters is tweaking the gameplay to make it appealing again.

Same thing about the "over the shoulder" versus "static backgrounds" issue. I like both, and it would be interesting to see Capcom go back to the latter, but I wouldn't hold it against them if they kept the "RE4" perspective. Both have their advantages in both gameplay and generating scares.

Lastly, if you're gonna go "Gears of War," then ditch the damn tank controls and go full out "Gears of War." The schizophrenia of the "Resident Evil 5" control scheme was pathetic and off-putting. Less confusion and more cohesion, please?