On Progression in Games

So how big is your backlog?

I’d like to think that the answer to that varies from one gamer to another, but there are some constants.  Not to open myself up for a heaping helping of Foot in Mouth Stew, but I’d imagine that there’s at least one game that everybody has on the backburner.  Then again, that might be a conservative estimate; with Steam long since established -- along with some pretty generous sales -- maybe plenty of folks are drowning in games.

I’m not in so dire a situation, but there’s a healthy list of games from the past year that I seriously need to get to.  Honestly (and distressingly), there are games from years long since passed that I need to get to -- which by extension means that I need to start over on several games, because they’ve got more dust on them than intact memories.  That makes me wonder if I can be relevant if I talk about games between “recent” and “classic” -- inasmuch as I can be relevant -- but based on my gaming recently, I think I might have figured something out about myself.

So How Good is The Simpsons, Really?

A while back, I found out that there’s a site called Frinkiac that lets you find pictures from The Simpsons based on quotes tied to the image you want.  You won’t find every image, but you’ll still find enough of them.  Type in “dr zaius”, for example, and you’ll find 36 separate images featuring the Planet of the Apes musical and the doctor himself.  Given that I’ve used Simpsons pictures in my post -- and wasted time trying to find specific clips that Fox and company have banned from YouTube existence -- it’s a very valuable resource.

It’s also just one more reason why I love humanity, and proof of why human potential outstrips the heavens themselves.  But I digress.

It should go without saying, but I’m extremely fond of The Simpsons.  I like it, I use it as inspiration, and I’m more than willing to pay my respects.  I pretty much have to, since it’s older than I am.  Where would I be in terms of comedy if not for that pack of Springfieldians guiding the way?  Where would any of us be?  It’s such a massive part of the public consciousness that I’m legitimately dreading the moment when the production crew says “That’s it, we’re packing it up.  This is the final season.”

Still, just because you love something doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to point out the faults.  So I will.  But first…

What’s the Deal with Fan Art?

So I started watching RWBY a while back.  I managed to catch up with it a while back, too -- but I didn’t have to sit through three separate season finales to know how I felt about it.  It’s a strong show, and I’ve got no problems admitting I’m a fan.  Now I’m just sitting here, waiting for Volume 4.

I should back up a bit and say that the show’s “seasons” are collected into volumes, with episodes typically ranging from 10 to 15 minutes.  Thus far, there have been three volumes (though there’s a super-deformed spinoff to sate the fans).  I’m at a point where I’m eager for news on the continuing adventures of Team RWBY and the other Hunters/Huntresses in the making, but there’s a problem.  See, when I jumped in, I dodged pretty much every connecting thread to the series vis a vis the fandom and general info.  I only learned about RWBY by watching videos on YouTube, not through the official website, news channels, and the like.  I’ve fixed that; once I finished the first three volumes, I subscribed to the subreddit in anticipation of news.

I haven’t gotten anything substantial yet on the news front.  But in case you missed the title, this isn’t a post about news.

Two shows enter, one show leaves!

Oh what a day.  What a lovely day!

Am I -- am I doing that right?  Yeah, I must be doing that right.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about which posts to work on next.  I’ve got a good list of them so far, so it’s only a matter of sitting down and plugging away until they’re done.  I don’t have specific dates locked down for each post, but they’ll come in when they come in.  And while it’s a given that some of those posts will focus on video games -- because of this blog, and because I’m me -- I reserve the right to branch out and tackle stories across different mediums.  Video games are an art form, but they’re not the only talking point out there.

So that’s where you come in.  I’ve mulled over two shows, and I need opinions on which one will go up first.  What have we got?  Well, let’s roll out the red carpet for our two competitors.

Oh, and MEDIOCRE!  There.  Now I’m definitely doing it right.

Captain America: Civil War VS Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice: WrestleMania

I feel like there are ways to make this post’s title more cumbersome than it already is.  Then again, I have my doubts that the Blogger dashboard would allow that; it’d either reject my attempts via a character limit, or trigger the bomb embedded in my brain stem.  Not 100% how that got there (or how I know about it), but it’s something I’ve learned to live with.

But let’s not dilly-dally any longer.  There’s something that’s been on my mind, even beyond the question of “Why is Captain America: Civil War better than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice?”  Granted that’s a legitimate question, and one I’ll try to answer in this post, but it’s important to go over all of the circumstances.  This is one of those cases where, in order to go forward, you have to go backward.

So before we do anything else, let’s talk about Man of Steel.

Always we will fight as one

Till the battle’s won

With evil on the run

We never -- oh wait, since I’m about to talk about Man of Steel, I guess I need to switch to a Hans Zimmer-approved theme song.  Yeah, I guess I’d better do that now.

Oh, and SPOILERS.  Cover your ears now.

Captain America: Civil War: SummerSlam (Part 2)

How does Marvel keep getting away with it?

Cinematic dominance.  Legions of fans.  Hundreds of millions of dollars with one release after another (typically, and that’s before factoring in stuff like merchandising).  The resources and confidence to be able to announce a buffet line of future movies.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe is on a serious hot streak, and if I had to guess?  Considering that Captain America: Civil War has won a place in the hearts of critics, casual moviegoers, and fans -- including yours truly -- I’d say that the streak’s still somewhere between “blazing” and “infernal” on the thermometer.

It’s easy to look at Marvel and get salty.  Very easy.  It’s not the perfect company, and its products aren’t exactly the apotheosis of art.  It’s hard to look at the MCU and pretend like it hasn’t inadvertently harmed the film industry, i.e. with a glut of superhero movies and forcing competitors (such as they are) to foolishly push their own cinematic universes.  And while it’s not a one-to-one comparison, the MCU has helped codify the idea that recognizable names = huge returns of investment.  Ready for a new Jumanji movie?  Too bad, idiots!  Here it comes!

If we absolutely must think of Marvel as the worst -- as a factory instead of a suite of artists -- then I hope you can meet me halfway and agree that it’s the best of the worst.  The reason why Marvel “gets away with it” is because if nothing else, it follows a fundamental rule proven in Civil War: you can’t spell “character” without “care”.

I was standing on my own

But now I’m not alone

SPOILERS!  ASSEMBLE!

Captain America: Civil War: SummerSlam (Part 1)

You know, sometimes it’s hard to come up with subtitles for these posts (especially when there’s already a subtitle built into the title).  This was one of the harder ones, for sure.  It would’ve been easy to go with something pithy yet meaningful, like “No, You Move” or “End of the Line”.  In terms of the movie’s context, there are even more examples I could’ve pulled from.

But I decided to christen it “SummerSlam”, because within the first ten minutes -- if that -- Captain America drop kicks a dude thirty feet away, while Black Widow seems to have picked up a few moves from Rey Mysterio.  Also, the whole movie is pretty much about a big punch-up between a colorful cast of characters, so why not compare it to a major wrestling event?  Besides -- and this is the important bit -- there are a lot of moments where Captain America: Civil War becomes less of a fist-pumping spectacle and more of a brutal, painful, heart-wrenching treatise on why fighting your friends can go so wrong so fast.  We could use a little levity.

It’s fine, though.  Civil War is exactly what I wanted -- which doesn’t say good things about me, but who cares? 

Our world’s about to break

Tormented and attacked

Lost from when we wake

With no way to go back…to a time before you weren’t SPOILED by the SPOILERS in this post.

(That’s how the song goes, right?)

RE: Captain America: Civil War

*furrows brow*

*strokes chin*

*stares at the ceiling*

Hey.  Are crossovers actually the stupidest thing ever?

Is Nintendo Doomed (For Real This Time)?

Not to immediately slaughter the momentum of this post by taking an axe to such a clickbait-worthy title, but the short answer to that question is a pretty firm nooooooooooooooooooooo.  It’s not over for Nintendo until they pack it up and scatter across the earth -- and that probably won’t happen with a new, mysterious console waiting in the wings.

With that said, I’ll be damned if there hasn’t been some sobering news recently.  And that’s not the worst of it.  I thought about starting this post off with “Man, Nintendo’s had a rough couple of weeks.”  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it’d be more appropriate to say “Man, Nintendo’s had a rough couple of months.”  But then that didn’t seem appropriate, because you could just as easily say “Man, Nintendo’s had a rough couple of years.”  And depending on your perspective, you could even say “Man, Nintendo’s had a rough couple of generations.”

I’m starting to think that being Nintendo is suffering.