PixlBit

DayZ looked pretty interesting, but I'm actually more drawn to its source material, Arma II.  I'd love to get that, but I don't think that my computer could handle it.  Not to mention that by the time I'd get a "dream computer" which totally could run it, Arma III will have had come out anyway.

Maybe they're on the decline nowadays, I'm not really sure.  I've tuned out zombiemania for the most part, so anytime they get mentioned I automatically put up a kind of mental "not giving a damn" block.

I hate them as a cultural fixation.  They're overused, overdone, played-out.  I hate any media in which the creators/director(s) said, "Y'know what this doesn't have?  Zombies."  If it wasn't there to begin with, it's probably for a reason.

But having said that, I don't think they're bad by design.  I enjoy certain zombie-centric things; even if Left 4 Dead has me mowing down hordes of the undead, it's still a pretty great game.  I flipped through parts of The Zombie Survival Guide and thought it's pretty cool, and it reminds me a lot of The Anarchist's Cookbook (DISCLAIMER: I no longer have that book, I'm not crazy, and I never had any plans on utilizing its instructions).  Even the CDC and some colleges have used zombies as a teaching method for pathology and medicine, and I think FEMA has used them for disaster preparedness drills and exercises.  Surely they can be used to make points about very real social issues like in George Romero's films.  But there are fewer "good" pieces than there are standard, trite, run-of-the-mill things, so even something trying to perhaps state a deeper meaning becomes "just another zombie book/movie/game/etc."

Heh.  That video series has some pretty good moments.  Glad you enjoyed the Troll 2 clip; I couldn't not put it in for that part.

Just because x happens and it's bad/wrong/questionable/annoying/etc., doesn't necessarily y is or should be exempt.  Personally, I've enjoyed the superhero films I've seen (Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Avengers and its tie-in movies), but superheroes haven't quite hit that status of cultural meme that zombies have.  Superman may be all-powerful, Batman may be craftier than all, but both are bound to the superhero universe's greatest limitation: COPYRIGHT!  (At this point, check out the "Figure Not Included" episode of Dexter's Laboratory, or at least just the ending.)

80s/90s nostalgia is extreeeeeeeeeeeeemely grating to me.  There's nothing at all wrong with nostalgia, but it's worn like a damn badge by way too many people.  It's not a special club, and "keeping it real" by caring about ONLY the original 151 Pokemon or because you watched 90s Nickelodeon doesn't make anyone special.  It's crossed the line from "remembering that cool thing from childhood" to banality.

Respond whenever or however much you like!  I'm not going anywhere.

Even though I haven't read the book, I've been told it was quite good.  The Wiki article (forgive me for my weakness) brings up its potential allegorical references to real world problems, as well as its basic synopsis (I read the elevator pitch).  So, the second of those is more egregious, but hearing that a book is good isn't necessarily my opinion.

Having not read the book, I'm even more limited in how to judge what little has been released about the film.  But I've read previously that the it appears to be straying too much from the book, at least to some fans.  Watching the trailer, it also looks like that may be the case as well, not to mention the fact that they've done some pretty extensive reworking of the finished product--re-shooting an ending ain't exactly cheap, and that's not all they've had to patch up.

I don't know how it's going to end up, if it'll be good or bad.  But so far it looks like Big-Budget Zombie Film 2013.  Nothing we haven't seen before.  It's more zombies; and if it screws up in that adaptation (which apparently is a hard task for Hollywood to carry out) by remaking what other films have already done, then I suppose it proves that part of my point.

"The basic vibe I get from Nintendo is that of minimilistic maximization, and when it works, it works."

Pretty much.  A lot of people have claimed that Nintendo doesn't think outside of the box nearly as much as they really should, or at least where it matters most.  Motion-based consoles and 3D-enabled handhelds aren't necessarily poor ideas, and they surely ended up working out for them in the end.  But their biggest problem may be playing it too safe with the software which moves that hardware off the shelves.  Mario and Zelda are sure winners, but Nintendo has been sitting on a rich, unique treasure of franchises and ideas that only they have.  They're finally releasing Earthbound over here for the first time in about 20 years, and I think that's a step in the right direction; hopefully after this they can learn to stop playing with their cards so close to their chest.

Much appreciated!  Unfortunately for me, those aren't my only health concerns, and knowing my luck, if I had that magic elixer which could cure everything...I'd spontaneously combust immediately after taking it.

I thought about looking into a voice-to-text program (I think Windows 7 even has one already installed).  But hey, why not give myself a little vacation?  Given my addiction to the internet, I think spending a little time doing other stuff - especially catching up on my backlog of games! - would be much more fun.

Wholly concur with this.

Nintendo operates like any other business: it puts out a product with the expectation that it'll see a return on that investment.  They've had a delightfully interesting track record of releasing games that nobody thought they'd ever want--Animal Crossing and series like Brain Age come to mind.  Nostalgia is an easy cash-in for anyone nowadays, and they've been able to make some good money on releasing old ports on all of their recent systems.

However, retooling some of these games for modern features, especially online multiplayer, takes effort that they probably don't consider worth the risk.  Sure, Excitebike probably would be pretty cool with that addition, but Nintendo would have to ask if that would be a worthwhile cost.  To my understanding, emulating old games for current-gen systems can actually be more difficult than many of us may think; a lot of of old NES/SNES games used proprietary sound and graphics chips built into the cartridges themselves, not into the console hardware.  That problem in itself has led to some games never seeing a digital release, or having to see "special" releases on services like Virtual Console (if I'm not mistaken, this was the case of one of the NES Castlevania games).  HD remakes are probably a closer version of what we could expect for some of these titles; in that case, the Excitebike "remake" for the 3DS was definitely a missed opportunity.

And then there's the issue of adding these features to old games whilst trying to release the newest installments of those franchises.  In Nintendo's case, they'd be potentially messing with their market success if they re-released Super Smash Bros. for the N64 with online play when they're planning to release the newest version of Super Smash Bros.  There's a little too much risk of the former negatively impacting the sales of the latter.  Hackers, homebrewers, and tinkerers can get away with this, sure, but they don't have nearly as much on the line as the businesses.  Not to mention that NES clones on the App Store don't really stay on there too long, anyway.

Despite my slight disagreements, good blog!

If you look at some of my comments from over the weekend on a few different blogs, you can get a basic idea of my take on it.  Some of the IGN crew put forth their two cents on the matter last week, and I could see some validity behind most of their points.

We're only geezers when someone runs an op-ed for the site about how video games are "too confusing" and "why can't you play this game on that...that game system, why can't they all just work on the same system, I swear those Japanese are out to get us."  Or petitioning Microsoft to release shuffleboard for the Kinect.

As for those drugs, no, I don't take any of them.  It was considered, but due to the nature of my arthritis (so far it's only affected the one joint--I'm as confused as you folks are) there weren't any real benefits for me to use systemic medication.  But I will use naproxen/Aleve when needed.

I don't think the surgery bothers me so much anymore.  I think the worst thing at this point is the anticipation, really.  Oh, and the drainage.  Totally not looking forward to that, either.

Gah, yeah, the arthritis is awful.  One of the fingers on my left hand is virtually useless; the cartilage is gone and even the bone has deteriorated.  I asked a doctor about an artificial replacement (just out of curiosity), but basically I'm too young for one.  C'est la vie.