How To Spot A Cylon

Up and coming Colonials might want to check out this handy poster which gives friendly and handy tips to spotting a Cylon:

Do they ask questions about classified subjects?

Do they seem unusually strong, smart or self-assured?

Do they say God instead of Gods?

Have you seen them before, but you know it's not the same person?

Do you see them hanging around secured or restricted areas?

Do they seem to hear music that no one else can hear?

Do they seem unusually fearless, as if death has no meaning for them?

Do they exhibit sociopathic behavior around other humans, especially defenseless children?

Are they unusually adept, almost empathic, with machines?

Does their spine glow red when they get... excited?

TV Watch: Battlestar Galactica Catch Up

I think Saul said it best when he quipped if it would be handy to have a chart. A recap of the show's events up to this point is like a Greek tragedy meets space opera which, at the very least, fits the show's basic themes.

Spoilers abound here, obviously.

I referred to the "final Cylon hunt" as something of a reverse murder mystery, where where it is more like hunting for a body than a killer. The resolution proved just as that would pan - a sea of red herrings before you find the real fish. Was it Baltus, with his seeming Cylon-like visions? Or Kara who certainly seemed to have visited a resurrection ship? Or an important background character like Dee?

Nope, it was Saul's wife? Don't even really know what we should do with that. It feels a little anti-climatic to me, and I can only hope the writers will make it work in the end.

The real open question, I think, is what the hell is Kara? Not a Cylon, but ... dead? She's a zombie? I'm also a bit confused on the whole "Cylon Earth" angle. It was a whole planet populated by clones of twelve people? Or was that just the models that survived to resurrect in space?

I think I get where they're going though. Cylons, humans - just sides of a coin which have been destroying each other, fleeing, repopulating, destroying, repeating history for thousands of years. Betting the "unknown Cylon helmet" turns out to be something human and that there are others Earths out there as well.

For Sunday: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

Thanks, Corvus:

TV Watch: Lost, "Jughead"

I rather liked this episode - it managed to make sense of itself despite all the wacky time travel stuff, moved the plot forward and gave us some decent character moments. Faraday is possibly my favorite character at this point, so I'm sure that didn't hurt either.

I had previously thought that Locke was inadvertently controlling the time skips, but that may have just been from how the last couple of episodes were framed. It may well be just like Faraday's analogy - Ben caused something with the island to stop working correctly when he moved the Frozen Donkey Wheel and there will be no rhyme or reason to it.

Although, that feels odd for an island which seems to be able to control just about anything. It seems like everything that is happening is still "fate" as Locke sees it, just displaced in time. So him running into Richard sets the events in order for him to become leader, etc.

There's a theory going around that the grey haired lady who is somehow tracking the island's movements is Faraday's mom. If so, we can see how Desmond could easily get roped back into Ben's plan and back on the island. Somehow I see Penelope as a single mom in about three episodes or so...

Can't tell if I'm more or less confused about The Others now. Did Richard used to be in Ben's shoes? Is that why he doesn't age? Dollars to donuts we find out that he was on the Black Rock when it shipwrecked. It's weird though, because DHARMA and the others seem like they're intertwined. Was Ben's mass murder just the climax of a civil war? Or was DHARMA an interloper like the US military and Ben just took over after? Trying to get my head around why these Others Mark I (Richard's) are trained the same as Juliet. Maybe the story is always about the defenders (Others) and some set of invaders (Losties, military, DHARMA, Widmore's crew).

Curious that Richard doesn't seem to have the same plan as Ben, with lists and who is good and bad, etc. Locke certainly seems like he got the short end of the documentation stick, jobwise. Leader of the Others and there's manual?

Anyway, good episode. Now I'll have to watch everything, however, thinking "there's an H-Bomb buried somewhere around there..."

Test Your FEAR

Eurogamers who want to be part of the join the Dead Echo squad for the FEAR 2 live event should head over to www.whatisfearlive.com for registration, while everyone can try out their skills at some aptitude tests and see a bit more of the game over at /www.testyourfear.com.

Game Anticipation: Feb, March 2009

I had thought that once I weaned myself off Fallout 3, I may not have much to do for like the rest of the year. Actually, February is looking pretty swank, especially for the PlayStation 3, and March not so bad itself...

F.E.A.R. 2 (Feb 10th)
The demo more or less sold me on it, this will either be a purchase of GameFly depending on the game's length and multiplayer reviews. I actually quite liked the online play of the original's PC version, so my expectations are pretty high.

Flower (Feb 12th)
More curious than anything else, but if the reviews are to be believed - this is will be a must download from PSN. flOw is still a pretty popular game here at the pad, and I'm hoping for more of the same.

Noby Noby Boy (Feb 19th)
Same as above - I know very little about this game other than how much I loved Katamari and how hard it was to explain that game without just playing it.

Godfather II (Feb 24th)
Grand Theft Auto with strategy elements? Yes, please.

Killzone 2 (Feb 27th)
Honestly I feel I should play Resistance 2 before committing to this title, as I think R2 got a bad deal from a very poorly handled demo and bad visibility with the holiday season. Still, I quite liked the original, even though I'm a bit afraid that the sequel will fall under the same "good title despite the hype" problem.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard (Mar 3rd)
I once joked that some Unreal modders could take the basics of Duke Nukem, create a similar beefcake main character and get a decent game out before Duke Nukem Forever. Well, it's not from a mod team - but we have Matt Hazard pulling off basically the same stunt.

Resident Evil 5 (Mar 13th)
Does it really need an explanation?

Sacred 2 (Mar 24th)
I really can't wait for this game, actually - I've been wanting a decent Diablo-esque coop for the PS3 since I've gotten it. Granted, I haven't tried Untold Legends yet, but let's hope Sacred can vault over that mediocre standard.

On the Wii, I'd be lying if I didn't say I was interested to see how Onechanbara - I mean, c'mon. Bikinis. Zombies. Could they add beer and bacon? Echoes of Time of time comes out the same time as Sacred 2, so I guess if the western coop RPG fails me, I have the Japanese one to comfort?

For Sunday: Chen Shows Off Flower

Flower game demo from Dean Takahashi on Vimeo.

From Dean Takahashi's preview, the game is apparently a work of art and really showcases the technical prowess of the Cell setup.

Fallout 3's DLC

Operation Anchorage is hitting the streets, but not being a PC/360 owner - it's not entirely relevant to me. As I said before, though, I'm still playing the main game ... so why do I care?

Apparently this add on works by having players pick up a new signal to find the missions. Which feels a little off to me. If I just paid for new content - should I really have to hunt the wasteland looking for it? I'm probably misreading things, maybe the DLC tells you to head off to the northwest area or something.

Finally - an upcoming DLC will raise the level cap. Before I hit level 20, I didn't think about that much. Now that I'm bouncing around the DC area, blowing off the heads of pretty much everything around me - I must ask, why? Do I need ten more levels to raise what ... my barter skills? Big Guns?

App Store Hijinks, Pricing and More

Following up on a round of App Store related reading, the story of a developer making a 'ringtone' app and making cash off it is becoming somewhat prevalent.

The App Store is something of a phenomenon, but some of this was somewhat predictable. For one thing, when the iPhone launched, even high end apps seemed to be capped at around $9.99. Now if Sega is going to spend a lot of time and money porting Super Monkey Ball for ten bucks, is something I've been working on going to go for much more than a dollar? Price pressure has been around since the beginning.

Course, that interview makes a very insightful point - there are a lot of people out there that find joke/ringtone apps hilarious and will gladly spend a dollar on them, show their friends who are probably of a similar mindset and, well, we're off to the races. You're not going to get that kind of viral marketing for a business app.

In other words, the ringtone apps are cash cows because they're crap. If they were real apps with real functionality, people would have to think twice about buying them. Even if the developer wants to maintain a "lite" or "free" version, this becomes a harder sell.

And to Sterno's point, if you are in even a moderately crowded field - pricing will be distinctive. Plus, if you charge too much and have any kind of problem with your app - be prepared for the negative responses.

Time permitting, I may release a couple of apps I've been developing outside of work. Mostly just stuff I've written to make the phone easier to use. My asking price? Certainly 99 cents. If it makes some beer money, great. If someone doesn't want to try it because it's not free? I'm not going to starve.

Game Play: Neuroshima Hex! (Board game)

A small Game Night got organized and we got a chance to play a couple games of Neuroshima Hex!, a game I first wrote about two years ago after reading an excellent review over at BoardGameGeek.

The review does a fine job of explaining the game, but in short: hexagonal based strategy game where players draw from a shuffled deck of tiles and place them in turn. You can place units anywhere - there is no set "place, move, attack" phase setup so common in most games. Battles only occur when a player uses a battle tile and then the combat occurs across the entire board at once. Units with the same initiative point their guns at each other generally kill each other. The goal of the game is to cause more injury to the others' HQ than you sustain on your own

One of the more impressive aspects of the game is the army design. Each army is unique, has a set of special units, and feel. Your unit summary card even has suggested tactics. Balance is still maintained, though, with the real trick being learning how to play to your army's strengths.

Neuroshima Hex has a reputation for being confusing in some circles, but I think that's a little unwarranted. Now granted, the edition we have has some advantages some previous gamers didn't have. For instance, the rules are printed in English. Also, there's a section in the rules clarifying certain scenarios. I read the rules over before starting, we made a few mistakes the first game but more or less got the hang of it quickly.

This edition has some pretty fine production quality (it even takes some of the suggestions in the original BGG review into account). There are even baggies included to keep the army tiles together.

Highly, highly recommend. My only critique is that I wouldn't buy into the "30 minute" play time indicated on the box. Maybe with 2 experienced players it can get that fast, but plan on spending some quiet time plotting out your moves.

Fallout 3: Retrospective

This post will be pretty much nothing but spoilers.

Finished Fallout 3 last night, which disappointingly ends the game definitively for the character. It's actually a bit jarring because for a game which prides itself on open ended designs and providing the player with choices - you really don't get many choices. Basically you can sacrifice yourself or be a jerk and have another character do it. Specifically one character, which doesn't make much sense since there's a decent likelihood that you have access to a character which could survive the radiation blast - Fawkes or Charon. Since ghouls are healed by radiation, Charon could have possibly turned into some kind of superghoul from the blast...

It's an annoyance because I know there are locations in the game I haven't found and I'd like to wander some more - so I'm probably going to pick up an old save to do just that. It's just a nuisance, not to mention a bit of an unsatisfactory end to the story. First, Dad didn't have to die. Sorry, but I could torn every Enclave soldier to pieces with my Fisto! before breaking a sweat. So Dad dies in a kinda falsely martyr like way - and then I kinda get forced to do the same? Gip.

Especially taking into account that the MC in FO3 is what - 18? 19? I know the Wasteland is harsh, but wouldn't somebody have thought of stopping me from certain death?

I don't have any real interest in playing the game over as a new character, though part of that is having been forced to restart it three times. As some point it might be interesting to try the "stealth" or "barter" approach, just because I'd see it as a challenge. I ended the game more or less as a tank. I think I had something like 20 DR before armor, and with the Ranger Armor fully repaired I could walk into a room full of plasma fire and it would cost me about a stimpack. I began and ended the game with Fisto! as one of my most effective weapons - The Girl was pleased to see Col. Autumn's head pop off with a single punch.

I do wish Sony would get the DLC packs - but considering the hours I've spent so far in the game, and the hours I could spend just finishing up exploring, I'm more or less OK with it. FEAR 2 is coming up, Godfather II is coming up, I still need to play more LittleBigPlanet and I'd like to try Resistance 2 at some point as well - so truth be told the Fallout 3 DLC is in about the same camp as the GTA IV DLC. It would be nice, but its not like I don't have other stuff to play.

All in all though, such a fantastic game. I know some Fallout fans would disagree, but some Fallout fans complained about Fallout 2, so what can you do. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a brand new turn-based more traditional RPG set in the universe as well, but Bethesda has added a very welcome addition to the franchise.

Microsoft and Sony, feeling the burn

It seems both Sony and Microsoft are making cutbacks in the billions, with Microsoft slashing jobs and Sony probably eyeing whole divisions with a bit of stink eye. A gaming perspective would suggest that this is probably because they're both getting spanked by Nintendo, but that doesn't seem to really fit reality.

It seems that both fates are more tied to recession related downturns to other consumer products. Microsoft has had a PR nightmare with Vista and that has been coupled with the recent trend to smaller, cheaper computers (name Netbooks) which run better off XP even when Vista's having a good day. Unlike the previous generation, the 360 is actually something of a bright spot for Microsoft's bottom line.

Sony's big problem is the slow adoption of HDTV's, something I've talked about to length as a factor in demographics for both the 360 and the PS3. So in some ways, the PlayStation 3 is more involved here - but it's a little complicated. One might suggest that a more popular console would result in better upselling of HDTV's. If everyone wanted a PS3, everyone would want an HDTV (if they didn't already have one). But that doesn't mean they want a Sony HDTV. More people want an Olevia, not a Bravia.

And both of these items - Vista and HDTV's - are huge investments for the companies. Sony at least has the diversification to change focus if they want, Microsoft has to deal with Windows 7 no matter what.

For gamers, though, I think the story remains pretty much the same. Sony needs to fix their software, Microsoft needs to fix their hardware and Nintendo needs to stop trying to sell me white plastic things.

TV Watch: Lost, The Lie

Lost is at interesting crossroads. The show should be setting up the closing acts at this point - but this isn't something that Lost is particularly good at. Lost is a show which has gotten a lot of mileage teasing the audience, although in recent seasons it was running out of gas with that tactic.

Bringing the story lines out of the flashbacks and into the flashforwards helped bring fresh ideas into the plot, so what we should be watching for is whether the flashforwards will likewise run out steam and the climax will feel something like a cymbals clash, or if we're going to get a tightly group ending which will bring the entire show together.

After seeing The Lie I'm not entirely certain which I'd place a bet on.

For one thing, the flashforwards already feel a little weird. Three years is a decent chunk of time, and one one end we have Locke and company time jumping around and on the other we have Ben and company trying to get the band back together. Where until this point we had a basic question - why does anyone want to return to the island, now we ... well we have the same question but about half the characters seem sold on the idea anyway.

This doesn't really concern me too much, as the concept of a general pull back to the island for Hurley and Jack isn't much of a stretch in the overall scheme for the show and the writers have given us some pretty good material for fleshing out the characters a little more. I'm even good with Jack just wanting to go back because he's a sad drunk and Hurley because he won't feel as insane.

It doesn't go far in explaining as to why if they all won't make it back, "God help us all", but that's the tease the show is still building anyway.

Our time travelling island crew gives us a decent amount of fan appeal and gives the writers to start splicing that three year gap pretty much how they want. Faraday is rapidly becoming one of my favorite characters on the show. He's appealing but flawed and gives the viewer a kind of advocate that they sorely need.

I mean damn, someone finally stopped in the jungle and explained something. I nearly cried.

I wonder where Jacob went on all this, but I kind of wonder if Locke hasn't been somewhat "Jacobized", and I'm guessing we'll know more as we get closer to his "death". We seem to have a kind of backhanded explanation to the "whispers" from previous seasons - people being displaced in time creating a kind of temporal doppler effect. My guess is that will slide into explaining the problem with say, Kate's horse, or a Sahara polar bear. Or even Adam and Eve (which two Losties do we think that might be?)

A thumbs up from me, looking forward to the rest of this season. I'm still afraid that the show will leave huge swaths of details by the wayside - but I think they're heading for an ending that is at least interesting.

Katharine Fletcher Signs Off

This hasn't been the greatest start to a new year. Work crazy, getting sick, broken PlayStation 3's.

And I finally catch up on my podcasts to find this:



That's the tribute to ChannelFlip's Katharine Fletcher, who was hands down my fave gaming video personality on the planet. There was no doubt that she was the real deal, a gamer at heart and - I say this as a compliment ... a huge dork. Anyone willing to dress up as various characters to spice up a piece deserves a spot in the pantheon, if you ask me. Katharine got into the meat of the games she reviewed and I enjoyed listening to them even if they were games I had played, finished and already put away.

Hard to find out much information, but it seems she's off for higher learning. I wish she'd fire up a blog at the very least, because if I can't see her enjoy these games - I'd at least like to know what she thinks about them.

Good luck, Katharine. Drop us fans in the states a line if you ever get a chance.

For Sunday: Ninja Cat

Remember, cats aren't just jerks - they're sneaky jerks.