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December 1st, 2009

04:32 pm - New Super Mario Bros. Wii How do I love this game? Let me count the ways: The title screen. "New Super Mario Brothers... Wee-hee-hee!" Cue big grin. The graphics! The music! It's just like NSMB, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Actually, I'm disappointed that they didn't re-use more tunes from the DS game. The Koopalings are back! \o/ The multiplayer is awesome. People keep saying that this game will ruin friendships, and I must assume that A) they're playing it the wrong way, or B) their friends are jerks. When you play cooperatively, formulating a strategy and successfully executing it is one of the most rewarding experiences in gamerdom. Yoshi is back! And you can carry other players in his mouth! That's not to say that the game is without its faults: I hate the Toads. Whether you call them Yvan/Wolley or Bucken-Berry/Ala-Gold, these two chumps shouldn't be here. I hate the color schemes used for the Flower powerups. The Fire Flower palette-swap used by Luigi in Super Mario World was stupid (green and white? WTF?), and it's a pity Nintendo chose it as the official color scheme for Fire Luigi... then came along the Ice Flower, and the two Toads, and suddenly all characters look like a preposterous jumble of disjointed colors. It's hard to tell who you're playing with, and what everyone's current powerup is. I hate how the game enforces player interaction. You can't walk past each other, and bumping into each other mid-jump screws up both players' trajectory, and once you pick someone up you can't let go without throwing, and argh. It's easy to see why most multiplayer matches devolve into grief-fests unless all people involved are willing to be extremely careful. You can't kick Koopa shells upwards. :< Despite all this, NSMB rocks and everyone should play it. Just make sure you invite your real friends over. Current Mood: excited Current Music: The New Super Mario Bros. - The Mushroom Waltz Tags: games

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November 27th, 2009

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November 26th, 2009

02:53 pm - Siege It is too friggin' hot to go outside, so I skipped lunch and stayed home with my best friend Mr. Fan. I hope I have enough food here to last until tonight. Current Mood: hungry Current Music: The New Super Mario Bros. - Walking the Hot Desert Tags: curse you mother nature

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November 20th, 2009

06:12 pm - Felinophilia The neighbors on the building up front have a kitten. It spends all day on the balcony, meowling and jumping around. I want a kitten too. :( Current Mood: envious Current Music: Excel Saga - Menchi Aishu no Bolero

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November 14th, 2009

02:39 pm - I fought the law, and we came to a standstill Last night, I went to the cinema with a few friends intending to watch 2012. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), that movie was sold out, so we watched some other random feature called Law Abiding Citizen instead. I loved it! I've never hidden my profound dislike for lawyers. They're little more than politicians who come to power without going through an election. So it was great seeing a movie where a phenomenally smart guy wraps the justice system around his finger... and he does it all from the defendant's seat! It's a pity that the latter half of the story takes an unwelcome detour into James Bond Land, with Gerard Butler's character becoming less of an anti-hero Chessmaster and more of a terrorist with access to magic technology. I want to love it, because the premise is excellent, but the movie is very flawed in its execution and it's leaking plot through a dozen different holes... Still, I'll give it three and a half stars out of five. Current Mood: impressed Current Music: Green Day - I Fought The Law Tags: movies

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November 5th, 2009

08:28 pm - An exercise in futility I've played the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, and I'm unimpressed. The sequel doesn't bring any significant innovations, and detracts from my favorite aspects of the original game: its simplicity and its mood. L4D is easy to pick up and play -- you can introduce it to a friend who's never touched it and in a few minutes he will be having a blast with everyone else. The sequel is needlessly complicated, with several types of weapons (many of which are hard to tell apart), way too many types of healing items, and three more varieties of special zombies (none of which differ greatly from the old specials). Spitter = Boomer Jockey = Smoker Charger = Hunter All of that would be fine... if only L4D2 had the same atmosphere of its predecessor! Comical mêlée weapons are a definite mood-killer, but the music is the biggest offender. Panic events are set to banjo arpeggios and mellow country songs, which... don't really mix well with the setting. I know we're in the Deep South, Valve, but this is the fucking zombie apocalypse. I don't feel mellow at all. To sum up this game in one word: unnecessary. I would've preferred new maps for L4D... Heck, I would've paid for them. This sequel has done everyone a disservice. Current Mood: disappointed Tags: games

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October 17th, 2009

08:43 pm - The big bird in the sky Remember that old Game Boy game called Super Mario Land 2? Yesterday I experienced a bout of nostalgia and downloaded the ROM to remember this classic... and found a subliminal message that, back then, was overlooked by my young and innocent eyes. Nowadays, I am a savvier man. I see what you did there, Nintendo! Current Mood: amused Current Music: Super Mario Land 2 tunes Tags: games

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October 6th, 2009

09:31 pm - A plunge in the sky A friend of mine has held, for a long time, the desire to go skydiving. He's been trying to convince several of his friends to go along with him, and about two weeks ago three of us gave in. I said "us," because I was one of those crazy few. ( Read more... ) Overall, it was an awesome adventure and I can't wait to do it again. The guys are even thinking about taking the necessary classes, and then jump on their own... I am sorely tempted to join them. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Mega Man 6 - Wind Man stage

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September 26th, 2009

10:02 pm - Let's do the time warp I keep coming across great indie games lately, and some of them have this deliberately retro look that makes me want to jump with joy. I highly recommend these if you want to kill some time and/or want to remember the good old times: Canabalt I love the little touches here and there, like flocks of birds that fly off when you hit their rooftop... or even the way the character rolls on the floor after landing from a high jump. The game itself is exquisitely simple. I've always been intrigued by the "one-button" school of game design: How fun can you make your game when you remove all complexity from the interface and limit player input to a single button? Legend of Princess Legend of Zelda re-imagined as an arcade side-scroller! It's very short, but the ability to select different loadouts at the start screen kept me coming back... as did the high-score record that appears after the final boss. (P.S.: My best so far is 2937.) Tower of Heaven (Note: There's no way to link to the game directly -- you have to click on "Games" at the top of the screen.) How freakin' retro can you get?! Low-res graphics in four tones of green, just like the original Game Boy! The soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard. The best thing about these games, though, is that they've managed to answer a profound question I've been carrying for a few years: Does 8-bit music sound great because I first heard it when I was a kid? No, it sounds great because it is actually great, period. Even though I'd never heard the tunes from these retro gems before, I was instantly hooked. Current Mood: nostalgic Current Music: Tower of Heaven - Stairway to Revelation

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September 13th, 2009

03:57 pm - Hello, world The past year has been a difficult one. My mood has been extraordinarily low, but now I feel a lot better and I think it's safe to start posting here again. Blah blah blah, I rented an apartment with a couple of friends from work, they're very nice people, I'm very close to finishing my master's thesis and finally be done with school, I bought a Wii but have no games for it yet, I bought a new PC and got a Steam account (my username is pedroluchini, as usual), and I gave up on moving to Canada. Life is good here. I'm gonna enjoy what I have while it lasts. This has been your Vaguely Informative Rapid-Fire Bulletin from Pedro. We will soon return to our regular programming. Current Mood: content Current Music: Hairspray - Run And Tell That

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October 17th, 2008

09:05 pm - Fantastic voyage I've been feeling ill lately -- nausea and lack of appetite -- so I went to the clinic for an endoscopy. I'd never done it so it was kind of a new experience. First the doctor sprayed my mouth with something that tasted terrible and left a numb feeling in half my digestive tract. Then, she told me to lay down and injected sedatives into my arm. Duuuuuuuude. I had never felt so... good. I was at complete peace with the world, the universe, everything. They slid five feet of plastic tube down my throat and frankly, my dear, I didn't give a damn. After the procedure was over, the doctor took me to an adjacent room to lay down and rest for a bit. I kind of fell asleep and had lots of funky dreams about distorted faces wearing impossible eyeglasses. Yeah, I don't know either. After a while, I woke up and she started explaining what other exams I have to take. I confessed that I couldn't actually understand anything she was saying. She just smiled and called my dad to come to pick me up, which is good because I don't think I could've found my way home. The effects wore off after an hour, and I was sad. ... ...Now I want to do it again! Current Mood: giddy

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September 1st, 2008

10:48 pm - Reassurance Mom asked me today if she should be worried about the Large Hadron Collider. I told her not to worry. After all, death by black hole is quick and painless. ...I am so going to hell. Current Mood: devious Current Music: REM - It's The End Of The World As We Know It

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July 26th, 2008

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July 20th, 2008

10:22 pm - Low expectations [22:15] <Pedro> Well, I've sent my résumé to Ubisoft. Now I just need to wait for the rejection letter! [22:17] <Simofett> You'll receive it bi-lingually. <3 [22:21] <Pedro> Being a polyglot means there's a lot of ways people can say how much you suck. Current Mood: depressed

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July 3rd, 2008

08:13 pm - Crossroads (2) I chose the 3D-graphics job. My wallet is weeping, but my heart is smiling. Current Mood: content Current Music: Futurama - You Gotta Do What You Love

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June 27th, 2008

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June 12th, 2008

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June 4th, 2008

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May 30th, 2008

11:37 pm - Those adorable Frenchmen Gaze upon it, and rejoice! I hereby take back every bad thing I've ever said about Ubisoft. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Beyond Good & Evil OST - Redemption

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May 16th, 2008

05:32 pm - Ayez mes enfants, Monsieur Ancel! This makes my shriveled black heart a little less shriveled and a little less black. Here's hoping Ubisoft can pull their head out of their asses long enough to greenlight it. They can go back to vomiting first-person shooters after that, for all I care. Current Mood: excited

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