I'm Launching A Forum!

Once again I'm in way over my head but having fun! Today marks the launch of The Spirit Blade Underground Forum!

It's a place for fans of Spirit Blade Productions and Christian Geeks in general to hang out, talk and explore ideas together.

Stop by and say hi!

Wonder Woman's "New Costume" Is News?

Okay, calling the Yahoo homepage an outlet for news may be pretty generous. But I still thought it was interesting that someone wrote an article about something as trivial as a costume change on a superhero. You can read the article here:

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93808?fp=1

It's as though this guy was looking for something to write about and decided to look at a comic book for the very first time in order to find a story. I could be wrong, but he didn't seem to consult with any comic book fans before writing. He loses some serious points on his research credibility.

My hope is that with a new writing team taking over what has been a very well-written book, gimmicks like this are not an indication of what they hope will sell future issues. Dress these folks in whatever you want. Just give me interesting characters and good stories.

Regarding the Yahoo article, Wonder Woman changing her costume is not even worthy of a light entertainment news story. It just ain't news in the comics world. And below I've pasted the comments I left on that article to explain why:


An "obsessive comic fan" probably should have told Mr. Krumboltz that he doesn't really have a story here. These kinds of changes happen all the time and are eventually reversed. (Superman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern. It's VERY common.) The only costume changes that stick are the ones where the updates/modifications are very subtle. This one will be fun for a while and get reversed just like all the others. It's only a matter of time. Oh, and her civilian name is "Prince", not Price. That one you can even find on Wikipedia.

Oh yeah. And Wonder Woman has already had her costume changed a few times as well. Switches back to the classic look every time.

Mass Effect 2 Is HARDER!

I'm about 5-6 hours into Mass Effect 2 and I'm loving it. But MAN, it's harder than the first one! Shots are harder to line up and the AI is smarter and more aggressive. Cover is a little harder to use now and then and I've come closer to dying more often so far than I did my entire time playing Mass Effect 1. (Well, except for in some of those land-rover sequences. Thresher Maws are lame.)

It hasn't gotten to the point of being frustrating yet. But the intensity is seriously cranked up, which means I'm not always in the mood to play. For me, ME2 means sitting down prepared for an emotionally draining experience!

But man is it fun!

Roguelike Games

That's right, you're getting TWO posts from me today! Who knew such a thing was possible??

My bro-in-law sent me some links to a game type I never even knew existed. And in keeping with the "Summer Of Free", these games are all free and legal to download online! Woohoo!

My first impression is that the unique gameplay (and not the graphics) is the chief draw here. I'm just checking them out myself now, so I can't really comment, but here is what he sent me. Next time you're bored and need a free way to pass some time, well here ya go!

Thanks, Sean! You rock, bro!



Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 9:32 AM

Hey bro,

I've been poking around on the internet for the last couple days,
looking into a genre of game called "roguelike"... These games seem to
be sort of the precursor to modern RPGs and are largely inspired by
D&D, so I immediately thought of you. They have a few defining
characteristics: Randomly created dungeons, permanent death (i.e.,
you can save your game as often as you want but once your character is
dead, that's it), and turn-based play. Anyway, I'm not really
qualified to do a review for your "Summer of Free" because I'm just
messing around (and I'm not very experienced in terms of RPGs), but I
thought I'd shoot you some links if you wanted to try any of them out.
We're talking super old-school here... the simpler ones (graphically)
require some imagination but seem like they could be pretty cool once
you're used to them. Most of them are keyboard-controlled so if
there's a tutorial or instructions I recommend reading them to learn
the shortcuts.

First, some links for general info and history if you're interested:
http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/roguelk.htm (an
introduction to roguelike games with some links)
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/ (a wiki with info on the
ridiculous number of roguelike variants out there)
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Roguelike (the
obligatory Wikipedia entry)


And now the games... I checked to make sure there are Windows versions
of all of these, and they all seem to be still pretty widely played
and/or updated:
http://rephial.org/ ("Angband")

http://www.adom.de/ ("Ancient Domains of Mystery")

http://crawlj.sourceforge.jp/down_e.html ("Crawl")
http://sourceforge.net/projects/crawl-ref/files/ ("Stone Soup", an
update to "Crawl" with prettier graphics... grab the file "0.6.1 >
stone_soup-0.6.1-tiles.win32.zip" )

http://www.nethack.org/ ("NetHack")
http://github.com/clivecrous/vultures/downloads ("Vulture's Eye", A
graphical update to NetHack... grab the
"vultures-2.1.2-eye_win32-1.exe" file)

http://tome.te4.org/ ("Tales of Middle Earth")

So far I've played "NetHack" and "Crawl Stone Soup"... There are tons
more (such as the original "Rogue") but these should get you
started... :) Besides, the older ones would be more of a hassle
because they'd probably require a DOS emulator like DOSBox
(http://dosbox.com).

Also, another game that is more of an old-school action/adventure RPG
with pre-made levels (and was written because the author didn't like
"Rogue"), is the "Kroz" series:
http://www.3drealms.com/news/2009/03/several_old_games_released_as_freeware.html
(you'll *definitely* need DosBox for those).

Or maybe you're not really into these old games... That's cool too. :)

-sean

Figuring Out Forums

Today's challenge is "figuring out forums". I'm attempting to launch a forum website for the Spirit Blade Productions community. The biggest and most vital ingredients are in place. A listener put together a fantastic looking site for the forums and has volunteered to be technical administrator, and I've got at least one person who has expressed willingness to moderate.

But now it's up to me to fill in all the little holes. Namely policy. I have to figure out what ground rules to establish for forum discussion and how moderators should respond to rule violations. I have some great examples to follow and model the forum after, but I still need to put it all down in my own words for the site. That is my challenge for today.

I better get to it!

Jonah Hex (Movie Review)

Although I’m a big fan of DC comics, I’ve never followed the Jonah Hex comic book, so I can’t speak of this movie’s fidelity to the source material. And normally I wouldn’t review a western, but the previews for this movie indicated some clearly supernatural elements that made it a good fit for the kind of movies I review.

Jonah Hex is about a man in the 1800’s whose family was killed in front of him and who is now a bounty hunter, trying to punish criminals to make himself feel a little better. But when it is revealed that his family’s killer, once thought dead, is still alive, Jonah drops everything to hunt him down. Oh yeah, and a hooker with a heart of… well, she’s got a heart and she’s tagging along because she likes Jonah, or something.

This is going to be a short review because I found this movie extremely forgettable. I don’t remember a single interesting character. Hex was most interesting in the flashbacks dealing with the death of his family. Otherwise, he showed no depth of character. In fact, every character in this movie was pretty flat. John Malcovich plays the villain, Quentin Turnbull, but because of his “unique” style of acting, it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s phoning this one in. Either way, Turnbull was flat and boring in nearly every scene he was in.

The explosions were fine, the effects were fine. Everything was fine. But nothing was great, or even very good. Predictable plot, flat characterization, conventional shooting style and set/costume design. This movie might have been something special if it had used more supernatural story elements and been more creative in its visual design.

As with any story that deals with communication with the dead, this movie could potentially lead to conversation about the afterlife. But the movie is so bland that you’ll probably be ready to talk about something else before you even get out of the theater.

At least it’s short. From opening to closing credits, I clocked the movie at under 80 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if some good material was left on the cutting room floor.

MPAA- Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual content.

Quality- 7.0/10

Relevance- 6.5/10

www.spiritblade.net/paeter

www.spiritblade.net/podcast

Refreshed and Recharged!

Just got back from a GREAT weekend up in the mountains! I'm not really a "naturey" kinda guy. Hate bugs and they all seem to hate me. Actually, "hate" sounds a little too macho. I honestly don't know how bugs feel about me. But depending on their size and/or flight capability, I have a crippling fear of them.

But we had relatively few bugs at the cabin we stayed at. (Thanks, Kelly!) And I was able to spend the weekend relaxing with my wife and son. We took a walk, ate a big pancake breakfast, roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows, ate s'mores and I even finished playing "Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age"! (C'mon. You can't go camping without an xbox and tv!)

The weekend was JUST what I needed and I'm excited to be back to work with the built-up stress of last week far behind me.

My parents will be buying a massive camper next week and are looking forward to going camping with me, my sister and our families. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to it!