Comic Review: Star Trek / Doctor Who Assimilation²

I've neglected this blog a bit this month. Working full time and writing for the magazine has taken its tole on my attention to the rest of the world. Meaning, I'm still playing catchup to find things that annoy me or interest me to write about. I do have some short stories that I need to clean up and publish still, and I've been working on a novel. Anyways, here is my latest review of the Star Trek / Doctor Who crossover: Assimilation²

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/08/comic-review-star-trek-doctor-who-assimilation%C2%B2/

Review: Magic 2014

I finally got around to playing this enough to review it. If you want to know what I think, head over to Amazing Stories to see.

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/08/review-magic-2014/

I do have something I want to add, though: There are a lot of posers out there who google up the best deck configurations for Magic 2014 — who have no business playing any Duels of the Planeswalkers games, let alone any version of Magic the Gathering. However, it's been an absolute blast completely destroying them while watching them rage quit, very early, in sealed play.

A lot of people think this mode is flawed, and they're wrong. I'm sorry, but half of the game is discovering your favorite cards and forming strategies around them. I'm sure some of you would love to be able to trade with people, but the fact that none of us can makes it fair, forcing players to think a lot harder about the cards they put in their decks. Sure, even before the Internet, players could have read Scribe and copied championship level decks, but you'll never be a real player until you learn how to actually build one. And the auto build feature does not give you the best deck possible. Go ahead and use it; I don't, and these are my deck ratings.

Awesome Sealed Deck Strength in Magic 2014

Top 10 Anime You Should Watch

I come from a time when anime was actually foreign and mysterious. The only way we could ever see it, without buying it, was to enter Blockbuster's special interest section and convince your parents it wasn't some weird type of pornography. Although, sometimes it was! Anyways, this is my top 10 list of some of the best anime ever, in no particular order.

Why I Mostly Hate DC Comics

Warning: The following content is the mostly unimportant opinion of a guy on the Internet. Reader discretion and common sense is advised.

OK, I don't really hate DC; they've made some of my favorite comics of all time. But I do hate them, lately: meaning the last 15 years or so. And while I loved the first half of Superman: The Black Ring and Superman: Red Son, I absolutely hated Infinite Crisis and The New 52. And that's a pretty massive chunk of what they've been up to. So without further ado, I give you three of my bigger gripes with the comic empire.

Worst Emo Song I've Ever Heard: Blood on the Dance Floor - Bewitched

This is something quite remarkable. It seems to encompass everything I hate about scene / emo / whatever you kids call it. And I know I'm not the demographic here: I haven't been a teen in over a decade, and I've never, that I know of, been a girl. But it's just surprising how little these "musicians" have to do nowadays to get this type of attention and following. Before I dive in, here is what I'm talking about:

The Worst Book to Film Adaptations

Before I do this, I just want to say that it makes me want to rip my hair out every time I read these lists. Why, you ask? It's because you can tell that most people compiling them barely read. Most are filled with children's book adaptations and Twilight. And you know what? The Twilight films, while they suck, are actually better than their source material.

Book Review: Cloud Atlas

Admittedly, I had never heard of this until I saw a story about the film, on the news. This is probably going to go down as David Mitchell's magnum opus. And rightfully so, it's very creative for a book that has commercial appeal. I don't want to tackle the various motifs and plot, per se. I think that spoilers are immanent if you dissect someone's work like that. But I do want to talk about what I liked and didn't like from a more literary viewpoint.

First off is the complexity. The only reason I'm addressing this first is because it's been touted as a main selling point. To anyone who's taken on authors like Gaddis, Joyce, Wallace, Pynchon, etc, the plot will read fairly streamlined in comparison. However, I don't think it was ever Mitchell's intention to be too mysterious, ambiguous, and base his plot on underlining, complex mathematical themes. It's definitely accessible to anyone. Also, I think the complexity hype has more to do with the average reader experiencing some substance for the first time in their lives. And in that regard, it has more creativity and meaning than 99 percent of what you'd typically find on the New York Times' best seller list.

Game Review: Nights Into Dreams HD

I can still remember the very first time I saw Nights. It was a summer afternoon outing with my mother and sister. We entered the local Media Play, which was an electronics chain back in the 90s. Most of you are too young or too old to remember its short lifespan, but lo and behold, there was the most magical thing my 13 year old eyes had seen: Nights into Dreams.

And when I picked up that controller, I just flew, soaring through dreamscapes on the wind of imagination. It literally changed me after a couple of minutes with it. Needless to say, we owned a Sega Saturn from that day onward.

Top 10 Christmas Movies

Now, holiday films aren't my favorite. In fact, I rarely enjoy anything that kids can get. But it seems that around this time of year there is no escaping them. For what it's worth, I'd rather watch any of the Doctor Who Christmas specials over the majority of these. But with that said, here is a top 10 list of the best, or to more politically correct, my favorite Christmas movies. Oh, and I'll throw in a really obscure non Christmas one that has a lot of the holiday elements in it.

Street Fighter X Megaman Review and Tips

Behold, Excalibur!

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Megaman, Capcom has released Street Fighter X Megaman for free. You can find a link to the download here ( http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man ).

I've been a fan ever since the original, and he was my primary character in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. And yes, I miss him in UMVC3. But while we're waiting for that new, current gen Megaman game, we might as well bust out our USB NES replica controllers and dive on in.

Book Review: Shada

This is the novelization of a rushed script crafted by the late, great Douglas Adams. And this monumental task was given to a current Who writer, Gareth Roberts — not to be confused with Garathian Roberts: current ruler of Theta Gorb, in the Quarg cluster.

As both a fan of Doctor Who and Adams, I can tell you without question that I was excited for this book. Although, and to be quite honest, I kept my reservations fairly grounded, to my surprise, he really hit the nail on the head. And having never read the script for Shada, I can't even tell where Adams stops and Roberts begins; this is all a fan could really hope for.

From a Doctor Who perspective, we are treated with a tale of my favorite, and arguably the best, incarnation of the doctor, the fourth: famously portrayed by Tom Baker. And I feel that his character was represented and translated very well, except the lack of jelly baby offerings! And as much of a cliche that became, it still made me laugh, every time.

Starting out in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Comic Cover

I was a big Marvel vs Capcom 2 player when it was still an arcade exclusive. I was into the tournament scene and had my own crew, mostly friends from high school. We'd go to different arcades together and challenge other crews and players; it was a lot of fun. There is no better way to play a fighting game than in person. But with everything coming out on console, the arcade slowly died out, and now the only way to encounter new players, in a casual setting, is to hop online.

Fable the Journey: First Impressions

This one has really polarized the fanbase. There are a lot of people who want absolutely nothing to do with Kinect and or can't afford to buy one. For the rest of us, the demo came out yesterday for Xbox Live Gold members, and I was really impressed with what I experienced.

My first impression was a bit sad; I didn't know the game was going to be played sitting down. And that's really not the experience I want when I play Kinect games, however, it wound up being far more active than I thought. Casting spells, blocking, and dodging enemy attacks can get pretty damn intense, and the accuracy of spell casting is amazing.

Movie Review: Primer

Primer is a science fiction film that was made on a shoestring budget. There is a ton of hype about the plot's complexity. And I really hate to make this comparison, but it has that post modernistic feel to it like Pynchon. Also, I wasn't the slightest bit surprised that its director / main star / writer, Shane Carruth, has a degree in mathematics. It's plot and narrative have overwhelmed so many viewers to the point where they believe anyone who claims to understand it is either a liar or a genius. I'm neither. And its complexity really comes from one dimension of story telling: A place I'm very comfortable with.

Music Review: Linkin Park - Living Things

The new Linkin Park is so good! J/K It's the same lame, homogenized crap that has been formulated for mass consumption. And the soulless victims of commercial thought programming are already heralding Living Things as Linkin Park's return to something and stuff. Anyways, iTunes has it streaming for free, for now, if you want a good laugh at 30-somethings performing tween wave / wiener rock.

Understanding Twin Peaks

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a huge Lynch fan. And while Twin Peaks was celebrated for being amazing, it was also marred by TV executives. But even so, David Lynch and Mark Frost have left us with many loose ends and questions. And there is a lot of richness still to the show for people still interested, all these years later.

Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

I'm truly sorry, but this was too tempting. And unlike many people, I've actually sat down and read it. It's a fucking Twilight fan-fiction originally titled Masters of the Universe, no association with He-Man, that was actually published and has become a New York Times best seller! What planet is this? You'd expect this insanity could only occur in an episode of The Outer Limits. But before I get started, I can sum up my thoughts with an E.L. James quote from the actual book itself:

"Why does he want to know this? It's so dull."

Spin's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time = Hilarity

A lot of people feel a sense of outrage over ranking lists. And usually the people making them aren't musicians or are fairly ignorant about anything which isn't mainstream. But this is the first time I've ever come across a list that was so bad it was actually hilarious. I want you to check it out before reading any further.(http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-100-greatest-guitarists-all-time).

OK, now that you're back, let's take a look at the greatest guitarists ever! I want to point out that some very good musicians were actually mentioned on it. John Mclaughlin was ranked 30 spots below one of the guys from Run DMC, and Frank Zappa somehow wandered into the top 20 ... just a little behind Kerry King and The Edge. Yeah, I really just fucking typed that.

Review: Star Wars Kinect

Well I'll be damned. Yet another Kinect title that works perfectly and gave me no trouble with the controls. In fact, it even worked with my plastic lightsaber! I've seen a lot of reviews of this game. And there is really nothing new here when it comes to the hatred. I even saw one person reviewing it with a room illuminated by daylight. And of course, he had a horrible experience. Since, you know, daylight contains infra red radiation ... which is the same radiation the Kinect sensor uses to detect you and your motions!

My Favorite Jazz Vocalist: Gregory Porter

Gregory Porter is one of the most talented singer / songwriters you haven't heard, yet. It's OK though, he's only been releasing albums for a couple years. You have time to change the error of your ways. But he's facing an uphill battle right now by making music that actually is good and lyrics that mean something.

His debut album, Water, came out in 2010. And I remember hearing a track off it called Illusion and instantly having this huge connection to it.