For Sunday: Ass Pennies Sketch

Audio is NSFW (depending on your workplace, I guess).

A Few Battlefield Demo Notes

Just to clarify:

- I'm all out of codes. Thanks again to everyone who wrote in. I'm going to try and wrangle some more out of EA.

- The demo is not available for download until June 5th, I believe. There was some confusion that it was ready now. The demo may be available for download now (thanks TimeDoctor). I haven't tried yet and don't have the instructions or anything - so try clicking around until something sounds like a machine gun.

Yeah, they are definitely live, I just finished the download. For PSN users:

- Go to Account Managent,
- Go to Transaction Management
- Go to enter promotion code

I don't have XBL, so I'm not sure what the path is there.

- Update: Neomorph notes: "The code is limited to North American XBL users only apparently." Apparently for those lot, you can try the demo now however. This might have added to my own confusion, actually.

- Update to that update: According to EA, these should be international. Neomorph, if I get a second round I'll try to work it out.

- I got more than a couple emails saying that GameStop had dropped the ball with a preorder and people didn't get a demo code when they should have. I asked EA about it and apparently there's no widespread problem with the program, so poke your local GameStop employee with a sharp stick.

- If you end up with a code by some other means (like sharp stick induced torture), please email back and let me know. There are about five times as many people who wrote in as those who actually got one, so do a brother proper and let someone else have the extra one.

Thanks again to everyone who wrote in.

TV Watch: Lost, There's No Place Like Home (Parts 2 & 3)

There be spoilers here.

I think we can uniformly declare this season a triumph. Last season was something of a mess of subplots and the character development felt slow and clumsy. This season we've had mostly tight writing which actually feels like it's going somewhere and the flash forwards have managed to build on the characters in a meaningful way.

Even more than that - previous gambles by the writers like keeping Ben (he was originally slotted as an incidental character) have paid off quite well.

This two hour finale was, as expected, largely finishing touches to all the arcs we've been seeing with the closing gap between the flash forwards and time on the Island. This is all fine with me and they left us some fairly tasty morsels as well. Locke's assumption of power, while expected, is made even more interesting with the twist at the end, his use of an alias, etc. Jin and Michael got a great sendoff and I think we can expect to see them again in the Obi Wan Club along with Christian Shepherd and the gang. Does that include Claire, btw? I'm still at a lost as to whether she is dead or just kidnapped.

The island's "move" turned out way more interesting at the very end than I would have expected. Did it strike anyone else of having a certain spaceship kind of quality? While I've been going on and on about the Island being a kind of godlike character, the writers could easily be invoking that old Asimov "technology looks like magic" philosophy as well.

That's right people, I'm calling it right now. The Island? It's The Heart Of Gold. The Improbability Drive explains everything.

Now while the twist was neat and all, I'm a bit reluctant to get excited about a main theme for next season being "getting the band back together." Sure, Jack has a hard road ahead and all - but he's never exactly been my favorite character. Way more interested in seeing the closing acts between Widmore, Ben and the Island. I am a little confused as to why Locke wasn't provided the same protection as Ben though...

Great finale, though, and glad to be excited about the show again.

Battlefield: Bad Company Demo Codes

Update:

These are gone now. Mostly to the first to the door and I still have the emails from those that didn't get to snag one. If EA can shake loose a few more, I'll give those precedence.

If you didn't tell me which system it was for - send me a follow up email even if you didn't get a code. It will help if a new batch comes up. New batch will be alerted in a new post.

Thanks for everyone who wrote in!

I (and probably a decent number of other bloggers) have been given a handful of codes for the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company demo arriving June 5th for both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. To get your hands on one (and you don't already have my IM/Skype/email/phone number/postal address/blackmail) - just send an email to the email over in the Hate Mail section of the right nav. I won't promise first come, first serve - but if you say nice things about me in the email it might help your cause.

Update: - It will also help your cause to send me your XBLA/PSN ID. Not required, if you're really shy (and I'm not even on XBLA anyway) ... but I figure it's a good way to track the handouts.

Here's a teaser:



Thanks to Andrew over at EA for dropping these by.

There's This City Modelled After Liberty City

You might have heard of it. They have a baseball team and everything.

New York City is pretty much the bomb, as cities go. I'm still a Chicagoan at heart, it's true. There's a density to Manhattan which takes getting used to - a slight pressure difference even from the likes of London which is hard to describe. With that said though, I can't deny that we'd be hard pressed to match the fine eats and treats which are within reach in the city. We had Saturday night at Momofuku - possibly the finest Thai food I'll ever have.

Best quote of the week belonged to the random stranger who faced with The Met responded with a "You know, this museum is actually pretty nice." I mean, unless you like, you know, grew up in the Louvre or some crap that takes a certain perspective to pull off gracefully.

And Spamalot rules. It's a simply dead on adaptation of Holy Grail and will make you giggle in all the same ways.

We're still catching up on television, work and the real Liberty City. Not necessarily in that order, mind you.