Tabe

So I finished Console Wars. As I stated previously, there's a ton of great information but the book is dragged down by the writing style and the over-the-top pro-Kalinske bias. The book also misfires on some key points. It glosses over the release of the 32X after spending a fair amount of time discussing it pre-release. The book fails to mention how the 32X and its failure led to the tanking of the Saturn, thanks to stores feeling betrayed by Sega giving up on the 32X so quickly. The book repeatedly bashes us over the head with the "The Saturn sucked!" mantra when, as anybody who actually owned one can tell you, that simply isn't true. The book also gets some fundamental facts wrong, like basically stating that Sonic the Hedgehog was released for free at launch as part of a Genesis bundle. That's just...wrong. The game was released standalone initially, with the bundle coming later. I know - my game store got copies of Sonic on release day and they sure weren't in a console bundle. When you mess up a simple fact like that, just so you can push your pro-Kalinske bias, it brings into question everything else. Still, lots of great info and the stuff on the Mario movie and the Sega Pico are must-reads. I highly recommend pretty much any video game history book and this one's no exception. It's really good, just be aware of the bias going in.

A couple relatives but that's about it.

More Netflix nonsense: A Gentleman's Game - Stuff like this is why I love Netflix. This is a movie I've never heard of and would never have paid to see in the theater. But it's on Netflix, it's "free" so I check it out. Story revolves on the maturing of young golfer Timmy Price, the son of a rather rigid father who loves golf. Dad has Timmy become a caddy at their country club so he can learn some lessons about work and Timmy takes up the game, only to discover he's really, really good. Netflix does viewers a disservice by leading you to believe that the movie is about the relationship Timmy has with a wayward former golfer and instructor played by Gary Sinise. It's not. Sinise is on-screen less than 5 minutes total. In the end, however, the movie ends up falling short of its promise. There's unnecessary stuff thrown in - a molestation angle that seems way out of place and a very forced "Racist old white guy yells at a black employee!" scene there to show that Timmy's dad will stand up for himself unlike what we'd seen before. The point is needed, the scene is just badly done. Anyway, this is a decent little movie but could have been a lot more. 6/10. Computer Chess - And then there's this one. This is a mockumentary about a computer chess tournament and it's set in 1980. You've got a cast of characters about like what you'd expect - lots of nerdy guys and then the commentator for the whole thing, who will play the winning chess computer. The movie is seemingly one random scene after another with "real" dialogue that just ends up being nothing. There's an awkward scene with a middle-aged couple trying to seduce one of the nerds, there's an awkward scene of some kind of "spiritualist" group doing a "re-birthing" exercise and so on. It's pretty obvious that the filmmakers are in love with themselves and think all these scenes are just hilarious and.....they're just not. They go for the "look how clever we are, we filmed it all in black & white!" thing because, ya know, nobody had color movie cameras in 1980. Bottom line: I *AM* the target audience for this movie. I get all the techno babble 1980 stuff they did. I wrote code to play chess games and so on. I get it. But this movie sucks. 1/10.

Yeah, I kinda did everybody a disservice by not mentioning the freaking battleship in the trailer. 100 lashes for me!

Of the stuff that was reasonably new to me, No Man's Sky impressed the most, I think. But AC Unity looks like the best game.

Wait for the PS4 version. Better graphics, all the DLC plus clickers!

Thank you for that. Needed that today, big time,

As the editor of the 'zine, you should know that it's the Tabedoza LINE not a system. You're a baseball fan, you gotta be familiar with the Mendoza Line, right? And I'm still pissed you double-charged me for my subscription to the 'zine and then frigging didn't send me the last two issues.

A-freaking-men.

Their cut scenes are always in-engine though. So....yeah.

Even I recognize that that game is a really high quality product. I just didn't like the game parts.

"Another level" for Tabe is a 7.2. Hater

So, yeah, Mom's got breast cancer. She's the sole caretaker for Dad, who has Parkinson's and needs lots of physical assistance. My brother and I live 2500 miles away. Ugh.

Jordan gets way too much credit as a defensive player. He was great in short stretches, absolutely. But great possession after possession, night after night? Nope. Once Scottie got good, Jordan wasn't the best on his own team. Once they got Rodman and Harper, he wasn't even second best. He got a ton of steals by being supernaturally quick with great anticipation but steals are overrated. John Stockton is the all-time steals leader and nobody's making the case he was a great defender.

The list of guys who WERE better than Steve Young is really, really, really, really short. And, yeah, Favre ain't on it.

Sony's press conference was incredible. They showed a ton of games, including lots of new IP, and a whole bunch of GREAT looking games. All kinds of PS4 exclusives and "first on PS4" content. That said, if you're a PS3 owner, this was a bad press conference for you. There were hardly any mentions of the system at all, let alone actual games or content for it. That's bad news for PS3 owners. But if you're a PS4 owner? Hooo boy, lots to be excited about! Did Sony hit a grand slam with this one? Nah. But a 3-run homer off Mariano Rivera ain't bad either.

And they wrap up the press conference with Uncharted 4. As expected, this looks AMAZING. Just the "Naughty Dog" logo in the trailer gets a huge ovation from the crowd. Seeing Nathan Drake gets another. It's next-gen Uncharted. This game will sell 500000000000000 copies and it'll be incredible. And good god, it's already the best-looking game ever. Naughty Dog just operates on another level from everybody else.

And now a trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight. Amazing-looking graphics for this third person beat 'em up. I'm sure this one will be a huge seller. WIsh I'd liked the first game in the series.

And now the trailer for GTA5. And they're letting you bring online progress from 360 & PS3 over to the PS4. Guess we'll forgive Rockstar for lying about working on next-gen versions of this game.

And now a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. I have no idea what's going on in this trailer with the main guy wiping somebody's ashes on his face. I haven't played an MGS game since the first one. This LOOKS great, I'll give it that much.

Back to the games, with a trailer for the PS4 version of The Last of Us. I thought the PS3 version stunk. Making it prettier doesn't thrill me even if everybody else loves it. Now if they'd just make it free on PS+, I'd give it another shot since Bix keeps telling me I'm crazy for not liking it.

And now Ratchet + Clank: The Movie. Could be good, don't care.

Back to the original Sony guy and he introduces original TV show Powers. Don't give a rip about this. Wait, it's free with PS+? Might give it a try but...yeah, still don't give a rip.

And now he introduces the gameplay trailer for Mortal Combat X. I remain unimpressed the second time seeing this. It IS really pretty though.

And now Playstation TV, which is basically an Apple TV but with lots of Playstation games or something. $99 for this. This could be cool. Need to hear more though.