Gin / Rummy: Epic Origins, Part 1

Goo, Mermaids, and Bunnies

Looks like Zuckerberg has been listening to criticism and is announcing new privacy setting changes. I can't help but feel that it was my biting journalistic debut from last week that pushed him over the edge. In any case, be prepared to be greeted by the new settings interfaces in the near future. Don't be surprised however if you get the feeling that it just won't matter in the end.

So I'm not feeling particularly angry about anything today. I think I'll just talk about the games I've been playing lately. I was one of the many humanitarians to donate during the Humble Indie Bundle event. I dropped $30.00 on them, making my cost about $5 a game. I spent the last week or so working my way through the titles. Many of these I saw previewed at PAX 9. Here are my thoughts on them.

World of Goo - This is a fun little puzzle game in the style of Lemmings, but with little adorable balls of goo instead. The goal of each level is to get as many goo balls to the vacuum tube as possible while using the various properties of the goo-balls to create bridges, ladders, and other gooey structures. The physics are unique, but intuitive and it takes very little time to pick up the controls and dive into it. So far the puzzles have been pretty self explanatory, but I'm sure I'll be challenged as I get deeper into it. The graphics are rendered in crisp 2D and the sounds are well done, but my biggest complaint is that there are no volume controls at all. I usually play games with the sound off while I watch a movie on Netflix on the other monitor, but I can't do that with this game. Overall, I think this game was well worth $5.

Aquaria - I just can't get into this game. It's basically a maze traversal game with a twist, you're a mermaid who can sing. I can't help but think of Ecco the dolphin and while playing this game. I gave it an honest try, but it bored me from the get go with an over long intro movie that there's no way to skip. After that you swim around in a maze of underwater caves and you sing to plants to make them explode and give you cooking ingredients. Yeah, you get to cook. Great. Like I haven't had enough of that mechanic already. You're not alone in your underwater realm however, there are little fish, jellies, turtles, and other marine beasties down there with you. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell which ones are friendly and which ones are dangerous until you run into them. Fantastic. The singing mechanic promises to be interesting because it lets you interact with the environment in unique ways, but the interesting bits are too few and far between for my taste. I have too much competing for my attention to waste time with something that doesn't give me instant gratification. Barely worth $5 for me.

Gish - This game is a platformer where you're a ball of goo, kind of similar to World of Goo, but more different. You goo around collecting coins, just like Sonic and Mario. This game plays with goo physics: viscosity, density, and sickitudiness. I enjoy the expression on Gish's face when you make him heavy, he looks like he's taking a dump. I'm not very good a platformers, but I can tell this is a good one, but my favorite platformer so far is still Braid. The art style reminds me of Earthworm Jim for some reason. I don't know why I draw these connections. Anyway, probably worth $5. It'll take me quite some time to get through it and then even longer to find all the secrets.

Lugaru - I never wanted to be an anthropomorphic kung fu bunny fighting evil bunnies and wolves until I played this game. I found the controls difficult until I learned the one trick: just hold down the left mouse button and repeatedly push CTRL. Then I blasted through the levels. Still, I had a great time sending bunny corpses flying through the air. The rag-doll physics make for some interesting combat. You can actually hurl to bodies of fallen foes into other enemies! Weapons are a waste of time. You're a much potent fighter with your hands free. This game reminds me of Tenchu: Stealth Assassins for the original playstation since you have to play it safe so you don't get overwhelmed by opponents and if you're really lucky you can get a one-shot kill on an unsuspecting target. Unfortunately, I blasted through all the available content in two evenings, so the $5 price tag is pushing it. I get the sense this game is basically a demo-teaser for their next big project, Overgrowth.

Penumbra - This is an atmospheric piece, a horror survival puzzle game similar to Call of Cthuhlu: Dark Corners of the Earth and others in that genre. It started off strong, but then got repetitive since you spend most of the game in a gloomy mine avoiding undead dogs. There are a few good moments in it however. Getting across the ice covered lake was a unique and satisfying challenge. The final scenes of the game are it's creepiest moments. I devoured this game in a single day. Due to it's repetitiveness and lack of content however I rate it barely worth the $5 I paid for it. Again, I get the sense this is just meant to show off their physics engine and pump up their next couple games in the series.

Samorost 2 - This is a unique and lovingly crafted game. It reminds me of Myst and other point and click puzzle games. There were some strange graphical anomalies when playing on my widescreen monitor though. The world is bizarre, but beautiful. The puzzles are sometimes non-intuitive, but click around enough and you'll get through it. Once again, I busted through it in just a couple nights, but due to its high quality art and originality I feel it was well worth the $5 for the full version.

That's it for now. Check out these games, if you haven't already and let me know what you think of them.

Gin / Rummy: Because the flavor of Man-in-a-Can is hard to replicate

Gin & Rummy: Sake Intro

As I slipped the key in my front door whilst returning home last evening, I heard the soft landing of padded feet.  I spun to see a solemn figure standing in the shadows, dressed in the unmistakable garb of the Ninja.  As I've had no recent ill dealings with the Japanese Mafia, I was perplexed as to who would want me dispatched.  Clearly if I'm writing this you can deduce that I met no such end; but rather the figure bowed deeply, with hand outstretched, revealing a note.  Scrawled on the most exquisite traditional rice-based parchment was the following.  A character both enigmatic and meaningful, we beg to know more.  I raised my head to thank the silent messenger, but only shadow remained.

I'm in ur Facebookz Stealin' ur Privacyz!!111

Facebook is ubiquitous. It has become the de facto social networking site on the intertubes, and continues to trend upward. It offers users a suite of functionality including photos, news, messaging, games, gifts, videos, blogging, event planning and invitations, and much more. For many people it is their portal to the rest of the world and fulfills that narcissistic need we all have to varying degrees. In my own experience, much of the popularity of these kinds of sites are dependent on the evangelical recruitment of new members by existing ones. The site becomes more useful to you the more people you've converted and convinced to join. The system feeds itself. Brilliance.

Yet, I am tempted to turn my skeptical eye toward Facebook, due to its wild popularity and almost universal acceptance. Let's take a look at some of the current news relating to Facebook.

I'll let the darling Meme Molly give you a primer to the issue. In particular, Facebook has been slammed on its constantly changing privacy policies, which often cause information you freely shared with the site to end up in the hands of marketers and the general public unintended. Congressmen Charles Schumer and Al Fraken have publicly denounced Facebooks privacy policies. Accusations have been made that their interfaces are intentionally obtuse and make it difficult for you to keep your information private.

It wasn't always this way, however. Back in the day, the early adopters had little to fear over privacy concerns, but privacy creep has slowly eroded their protections. This visualization does an excellent job of illustrating the issue. If that's not enough to scare you, here are some bugaboos that might make you dirty your drawers: Five Hidden Dangers of Facebook, and 10 Reasons to Quit Facebook. In particular I like the Idiots of Ants sketch at the end of the second article.

Still not afraid? Well how about this: Openbook gives you an easy way to search public Facebook information for stuff people would probably be better off keeping to themselves, like "playing hooky" or "don't tell anyone" or my favorite "having a wank". Seriously people, the world does not need to know this shit. People get fired over this kind of thing, all the time.

What can you do to fight back? Well, the folks at the Consumerist have a couple of great suggestions. Senator Al Fraken even has some ideas. If I've sufficiently frightened you by now to leave Facebook behind then what will fill that horrible void? At the end of the Rocketboom clip you'll run into a group of endearing nerds, who claim to have the Facebook killer idea of an open source, distributed social networking site, diaspora. Also there's Appleseed, which could be available sooner than Diaspora. I hope both of these make it. We need diversity, people.

Personally, I prefer the do-it-yourself scattershot approach to distributed networking. I don't like having all my functionality under one roof. To me, linking everything to one account is ensuring that there will be a single point of failure, which is a bad idea from a software development stand-point. I like to find specific apps for specific needs, then if one thing fails, nothing else is affected. For photos I use flickr. For blogging, blogger. For events and invites, evite. Email, IM, and Twitter serve me just fine for messaging, although I have a few choice words for Twitter which I will get into on another post. For professional networking I use LinkedIn. Of course, Google covers just about everything else I need.

I think I've said just about everything I need to about this. I turn it over to you all now to discuss. What is it you like about Facebook? What do you hate? What would convince you to leave?

Gin / Rummy : Latest Teaser

A brick with this wrapped around it was hurled at me this morning from the driver of a black van with darkened windows, that slowed down just long enough for me to recognize the middle finger of a certain Mr. Nice Guy....

I am moistened with anticipation.  And slightly concerned for my life.

Really Awkward Star Wars Tie-Ins....

There are 2 guaranteed tenets of Star Wars marketing: that anything blessed enough to be seared with the golden brand will get showered with the monies like Fat Joe in a Strip Club, and that there is nothing that Lucas will not poke with that smolderingly profitable brand.  I humbly submit two examples:

#1: Slave Leias at the Star Wars Charity Car Wash

I'm all for charity car washes (a classic trope for cheerleading squads and those that stalk them), but the addition of Darth Vader and Storm Troopers crosses it to just weird.  For some reason ladies dressed as Slave Leia in RL doesn't look that odd, but the Lord of the Sith and sidekicks standing on a street corner just looks wrong.

#2: St*r Warz Burlesque Presented By The Devil's Playground
Ok,  so the modified name gives this one away as mostly likely not blessed by Lucas, but they don't seem to mind it either. 
I find their portrayal of Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 most disturbing. 
 
Well, this sucks pretty bad too.

source: boston.com

I'd rant about the exploitation of our collective childhoods, but what's the point.  Just go see The People vs. George Lucas when you get a chance.

Speak of the Devil (or at least Devilshly handsome...)

Speaking of Mr. Nice Guy, I found this crammed into my email inbox this morning, with a crudely written, booze spattered note telling us to shut our pie-holes and post this:

I guess we're lucky he didn't spell that first word with a "u".