Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I've been playing videogames for as long as I can remember. As an avid gamer, I would always buy my anticipated titles on launch day, eagerly doing what any other avid gamer would - playing the shit out of them. Of all of the games I've ever played, Super Smash Bros. Melee was probably the game I put the most time into. Eventually, I became a competitive smasher, learning all the advanced techniques, and kicking a fair bit of ass with Marth. I could only dream of the next Smash Bros. game.

Until the launch of Mario Galaxy (an amazing game), I was not happy with my Wii. Twilight Princess, which I had all but creamed my pants in anticipation over, was a huge disappointment, as was Metroid Prime 3. Most of the Wii games looked like they weren't even worth my time. I wasn't worried about the possiblity of Brawl being a disappointment, however. After all, how could they ruin Brawl? It's the fucking sequel to Melee!

When Brawl came out, it took over my life. For exactly one week, I played the damn game every waking hour, not even yeilding to eat. It was an obsession. After a thourough amount of time with the game, I've come to several conclusions. Compared to Melee, Brawl is shit for competitive players, and, overall, is a huge disappointment. (No, it didn't deserve a single GOTY).

First, let's take a look at the character balance. Previous top-teir smasher Marth, was improved for Brawl. Yes, that's right, the top-teir, insane priority, incredibly powerful badass girly-man Marth was improved - double edge dance is now one of the best moves in the game, fair is deadly, counter is more powerful, and his ^smash is usable! In all fairness, his range was nerfed, and his tip is slightly less powerful for his side samsh, but overall, he was improved. Other characters, such as Peach, Shiek, and Captain Falcon, were completely nerfed.

Overall, the character balance is horrid. Meta-Knight rises to a supreme level untouched by anybody else. What were they thinking when they made him? He's a character with near infinite recovery, and unprecedented gimping ability. Snake is incredible, Rob is amazing. Then you've got trash like Link, who is completely outclassed by Toon-Link. Character balancing my ass. Items have been horribly balanced as well, ranging the gamut from utterly useless to completely overpowered.

Before I go into my next point, I want to briefly cover what it means to be competitve. A game is competitive when the better player can win consistently. Yes Brawl is somewhat competitive, but no where near Melee. You can find competition in event the most shallow game, however, it is not truly competitve. The addition of certain limiting factors to Brawl's gameplay help to cripple its competitve nature.

Now let's examine some of the limiting factors they placed on the gameplay, to "make it easier for new players". L-cancelling and wave-dashing are gone. What good does that do? None. It removes depth. Now there's less reward for hard-practice, less to separate the big-boys from the n00bs. Keeping in those advanced techniques wouldn't have hurt a damn thing. It would've only provided more enjoyment for people willing to dedicate time to the game. The ledge snap feature is ridiculous as well, enabling people to grasp the ledge automatically from extremely far distances. Above all, the changes they've made ensure that the game will be a floatly, slow, clunky, sheild-grab fest, with long, flowing, Ken-style combos a thing of the past. In Melee, technique was rewarded, and the sky was th limit. With Brawl, that's simply not the case. The better player does not win nearly as much as they did in Melee.

Then there's the "random" factor. To everyone's great enjoyment, tripping has been added - a feature that serves absolutley no other purpose except to frustrate players. And guess what? It's completly random! Yay!

Now, some general complaints about Brawl, not related to its competitive nature.

First, let's look at the random character select feature which is absolutely not random. Here are some scenarios:

1. I get Wolf, in the same color, 5 matches in a row.
2. During a team match, p1 gets fox, and his teammate p3 gets falco. P2 gets falco, and his teammate p4 gets fox. Repeating the match, the characters are then switched - p1 is falco, his teammate p3 is fox etc.
3. P1 gets Link, and his partner gets Mario. P2 gets Gannondorf, and his partner is Bowser.

Now, keep in mind that the above situations were all chosen completely by the random feature. Also keep in mind that similarly "unrandom" scenarios occur frequently, perhaps in almost every match where random is used. If I choose random, that means I want a random set of characters. If I wanted my own cutsey scenarios, I would've arranged them myself! While this may be a minor quibble, it's still annoying, and a prime example of the developers' incompetence (or random/luck oriented attitude when making this game).

Next are the CPUs. While not a complaint about Brawl's competitive meta-game, they still make playing alone incredibly annoying. First of all, there's the matter of their Jesus-flexes. Yes, you heard me right. They aren't really skilled in the traditional sense. Instead, they possess godly reflexes, allowing them to dodge anything - smash attacks at point blank range, any obstacle, or any item or assisst trophy, even final smashes. This makes playing against a CPU annoying as shit - you never hit them, and they're constantly running.

CPUs are also a pain in the ass in another aspect as well. Contrary to previous Smash Bros, these CPUs do not fight fairly in a "free for all" match. For some reason, they only go for human players - teaming up to ridiculous extents on the lone human. In Melee or 64, if you were to run to the other edge of the stage, and leave two CPUs, they'd fight each other. In Brawl, however, both CPUs will follow you. They won't so much as touch each other. After they knock you off the ledge, they just stand there, waiting to rip the shit out of you as you try to recover. Only after you're out of the picture do they fight each other. Now playing free for alls as a single human player is extremely irritating, as it consists of you trying to fend off 3 CPUs constantly.

Next, I have some other complaints. Subspace isn't that great, and gets boring after a while. The soundtrack isn't all it's cracked up to be either. There are some gems in there, but overall, quality>quantity. Many of the tracks are trash, and alot feature midi (which sounds horrible, there's no excuse for midi). WiFi is shit. One word: lag. I have a pretty damn fast connection, and even local matches suffer from extreme lag, which completely unacceptable in any fighting game.

Above all, I firmly believe Brawl is a worse game than Melee. Melee is the better made game. Competitively, it's no contest - Melee is the game that rewards hard work, and Brawl does not. That said, I still play Brawl, and I still have fun with it. I also believe that the Smash series has passed its golden era of Melee, and will only go downhill from there. Brawl was definitely a step in the wrong direction, and the next Smash Bros will probably be no better. Sakurai has even said that he intends to give the next Smash Bros. installment less content - a sure sign of its potential catering to "new players".

Most of the pro-brawl or anti-melee arguments are baseless, overused, and just annoying. (No, I do not hate pro-brawl players, just the stupid ones). Here are a few things that I don't want to hear, and why:

Brawl hasn't been out for that long yet! Give it some time! It took a while for all of the Melee techniques to be discovered!

This argument is one of the most overused ever. They forget that since launch (even before), Brawl had thousands of people playing and working towards finding new techniques and advancing the meta-game. Melee, did not. There was no Smashboards to help organize everything, and the number of smashers working to advance the metagame was very low.

This isn't Melee 2.0! You can't compare the two!

We're looking at the competitive nature of Brawl and Melee. For that reason, we must compare the two. This argument can be valid in other comparisons, however.

Stop hating on Brawl! Seriously stop that!

Not really a point whatsoever. I'm not picking on Brawl. I'm giving reasons as to why I don't like. Why should I stop? Provide me with actual reasons.

---

In fact, I'm sick and tired of Nintendo's current trend. They're easier, shorter, and overall shallower - probably for some bullshit reason of catering to "new players" (my grandma). I don't get it. New players did fine with older Nintendo games, which weren't shallow and easy. Games like Wii music are absolute trash, and I feel that Nintendo truly is abandoning the fans that have been with them all along - the same fans that put them where they are today. Most of the current installations of Nintendo franchises have been subpar, save for Mario Kart, AC (although City Folk is rehash in its purest form), and Mario Galaxy. The wiimote itself would be alot better if it was a little more responsive.

Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at President Bush

A sign of great respect for one of the most internationally respected presidents in a long time.

By Edwin Chen

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush ducked two shoes thrown at him by an unidentified man during a press conference in the Iraqi prime minister’s office to mark the signing of a security agreement.

Bush wasn’t hit by the shoes, which both sailed over his head after they were thrown one after the other. The president shrugged and said “I’m OK” after the incident in Baghdad today. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” Bush said afterwards.

In Arab culture, throwing shoes is a grave show of disrespect. The man shouted an Arabic phrase, which an Iraqi present translated as “this is a farewell kiss, dog.”

After U.S. troops pulled down a statue of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi bystanders tossed shoes at it, according to news reports at the time. Bush said today’s incident was an example of free speech in a democracy.

The man threw the shoes from about 25 feet away as Bush, standing with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, made formal remarks before the signing of the Iraqi-U.S. agreement. Maliki tried to block the second thrown shoe as it flew toward Bush, according to video of the incident shown on television.

Wrestled to Ground

The shoe-thrower, who was in a group of journalists, was wrestled to the ground and taken away. “This is the end,” shouted the man, later identified by the Associated Press as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

At the signing ceremony, Bush said a free and democratic Iraq will now become “a force for freedom” and a “source of stability in a volatile region.”

“There is still more work to be done,” Bush said. “The war is not over.” The president said that with the agreement, “and the courage of the Iraqi people, and the Iraqi troops, and American troops and civilian personnel, it is decisively on its way to being won.”

Bush arrived today in Baghdad on a surprise visit -- his last to Iraq as commander-in-chief -- to celebrate the agreement, thank U.S. troops and meet with Iraqi leaders.

It was Bush’s fourth visit to a nation transformed by the U.S.-led war he started in 2003. It follows three weeks after Iraq’s parliament approved an accord with the U.S. that provides for the withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011.

Obama’s Plan

President-elect Barack Obama has said one of his first acts as commander-in-chief would be to direct his military commanders to begin withdrawing troops “as quickly as we can” while maintaining stability in Iraq, ensuring the safety of U.S. troops and preventing a resurgence of terrorism.

The president has made three previous unannounced trips to Iraq -- on Thanksgiving 2003, June 13, 2006, and Sept. 3, 2007.

While those earlier trips were intended largely to bolster troop morale and shore up domestic support for the unpopular war, Bush’s latest Iraq visit amounted to a valedictory appearance. He leaves office on Jan. 20.

Bush later today addressed more than 1,000 troops at Camp Victory, the staging area in Baghdad for U.S. forces. The surge of additional U.S. troops sent to Iraq early last year to quell sectarian violence has been “one of the greatest successes in the history of the U.S. military,” Bush said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Baghdad at echen32@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCRrAR5He4xY&refer=home

McCain Scolds GOP for going after Obama in Blagojevich Scandal

Haha, suck it GOP.

McCain replied: “I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don't know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama's campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.”

Great job McCain. Funny on Letterman, now going against the stupidity of your own party... You have my vote!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16562.html

Scientists Extract Images Directly from Human Brain

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”

The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/

Incredible, simply incredible... Minority Report, here we come!

Done with finals

Finally, done with everything. Since I'm off for a month, I'll have plenty of time to update from now on. Here's my report card:

Biology 107 - A - An introductory Biology course. The teacher was great; taught us well, damn nice guy, upbeat, and always willing to help. I definitely learned my stuff, and I'm well on my way to kicking the MCAT's ass.

That said, the class was difficult. The tests were very tricky, especially his wording. Perhaps the single most aggravating aspect of the course was his attitude about the tests. Due to "getting fingers pointed at him", he refused to reveal the content of the exams, instead instructing us to study every possible chapter in the book, in addition to the material we covered in class. That left us with hundreds of pages of readings to do for the test. Since it was all crammed anyway, none of it was really retained. For the first test, we had to read the first 7 chapters of the book - several hundred pages covering everything from evolution to a comprehensive review of chemistry (basic all the way to organic).

Truth be told, it was really only the first test that was bad, the others were more bearable, as I had a good idea of how much he would actually take from the book (jack-shit). His "bogus" policy gave much needed extra credit points to students who got questions right that the majority of the class missed.

I hated the labs. I'm not exactly sure what it was - the teacher was nice, the TAs were very helpful, and my lab partners were good. The frantic pace, and sometimes ambiguous instructions were probably the reason for my disdain. That, and I hate group-work (whine whine real world whine whine shutup).

Overall, a great course. Great teacher. Difficult, but not much work involved outside of studying for tests.

Ethics - A - Another great course. At first I was regretting not taking Logic instead, but now I'm happy. This is one of those courses that I could say I truly learned a ton from. We covered many modern ethical issues - the death penlaty, bioethics, world hunger, war and terrorism, and more. It really helped me find solid ground as to where I stand on these issues. Discussion groups were held on every topic, which really allowed you to debate and defend your stances, definitely my favorite aspect of the course. The study of many topics such as Utilitarianism and Deontology really helped too.

The teacher is a very smart guy, perhaps a little bit too smart to be teaching an introductory course. He would lecture at large about a single passage from a piece for 20 minutes, delving well beyond the scope of the entire class. Other times, I felt he was holding back his opinion too much. Then again, in this politically correct world, he probably did the best he could. Homework mainly consisted of reading, with two papers. He's definitely an easy grader to boot.

Macroeconomics - A - Painfully easy. Decent teacher, formulaic method. Pronounces words funny, worth it just for that I guess. I thought about being an Econ/Bio double major, but now, no - just Bio. I'm definitely glad I chose this over micro.

Spanish 202 - A - The best Spanish class I've ever had. Incredible teacher - extremely clear, very helpful. He talked slowly, which was the best part. I definitley noticed a huge improvement in my Spanish comprehension. Lots of homework, tricky tests, but worth it for the incredible professor.

That said, I've really enjoyed my first semester. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

Dragonball: Evolution Trailer!

Finally, a solid trailer. Turns out it'll be called Dragonball: Evolution. As to whether it'll be good, I'm not sure yet (I doubt it). It looks to have taken on a martial-arts movie feel...

http://www.dragonballmovieblog.net/2008/12/dragonball-trailer-hits-sort-of/

Prop 8 - The Musical!1!!!

Haha, this is great. Check it out if you haven't already.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones

New Pics from Wolverine Movie

Finally, some pics of the Wolverine movie - X-Men Origins: Wolverine - have surfaced. I'm really excited. Hopefully it won't be the shitfest that X3 was. Wolverine on top, and Gambit (!) on bottom. Click the link for more.

http://www.movietome.com/infocus/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=774444

LolTexas

Haha, this is real, I swear. A Dallas County official is demanding an apology from his colleague for using the term "black hole". He told his colleague to use the term "white hole" instead. lol worthy indeed.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/dallas-county-meeting-turns-ra.html

R.I.P. Hippocratic Oath, B.C.400-2008

Get a load of this bullshit, it's outrageous:

Reporting from Washington -- The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.

For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that healthcare workers also may refuse to provide information or advice to patients who might want an abortion.

I don't know about you, but that scares the shit out of me. Perhaps it's one last "Fuck you" from the Bush administration as they leave office.

First of all, this would completely undermine the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath. Let me site one passage specifically:

To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority.

That passage encapsulates the meaning of the modern Hippocratic Oath. Aren't doctors supposed to put the interests of their patients first? Before payment, pressure from their community or family, anything? This outrageous "Right of Conscience" horseshit would completely undermine a patient's right to receive treatment, essentially sending the "put the good of the patient first" idea down the toilet.

Secondly, this is essentially forcing the religious beliefs of the doctor onto the patient. Random religious asshats comment:

Proponents, including the Christian Medical Assn. and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say the rule is not limited to abortion. It will protect doctors who do not wish to prescribe birth control or to provide artificial insemination, said Dr. David Stevens, president of CMA.

"The real battle line is the morning-after pill," he said. "This prevents the embryo from implanting. This involves moral complicity. Doctors should not be required to dispense a medication they have a moral objection to."

Hmm, let's think about that one for a while. What this bill is actually doing is forcing to the patient's to succumb to the religious beliefs of the doctor - which may defy the best course of medical action at the time (and it could be urgent). Consider this scenario. Say a 14 year old gets crazy (and I mean CRAZY) at a party, and gets knocked up. When she goes to her doctor the next day, she is denied the morning after pill on the grounds that the Christian doctor refuses, as he is morally against it. Now, because of the fact that the doctor is morally against it (due only for religious reasons), even when medically there was no harm, (AND it was the best possible course of action at the time), the girl gets pregnant, and her life is ruined, as she is completely unready to have a child.

Okay, that may not be the most likely scenario, but it could happen under this new act. Organizations such as Planned Parenthood are already fighting against it. Above all, this is one last dirty attempt to try to please social conservatives. This is politicizing women's health. The health of the patient must come first.

The potential implications of this act are harrowing. A patient would be denied not only an abortion, simply because the doctor is against (usually for religious reasons), but also such acts as artificial insemination. Hell, the doctor could even reject essential treatments such as blood transfusions on religious grounds. Lesbian couples would be denied artificial insemination. Furthermore, as stated in the article, this could re-open the abortion debate for the Obama administration. With the current state of the world and our economy, that's the last thing they need on their plate.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-conscience2-2008dec02,0,7013690.story

Howdy, partner....

This post signifies my opinion (better than everybody else's, trust me, I know) being added to the blogosphere. Whether or not anyone gives a shit about mine, or the entire blogosphere for that matter, is yet to be seen. I'm busy with finals at the moment, but I'll try my best to get this thing up and rolling as soon as possible.