loonyblog.

I’ve experimented in the past with selling comics over eBay and Shackifieds, but after flirting with that I decided that the only way to really get this done in a hurry was to sell the whole lot at once. So, I’m doing just that, and you can go over to Craigslist now to see the listing.

I’m selling the entire collection off at a really low price, but requiring people to come and pick it up in person. I think that’s a fair tradeoff. If there’s no takers, I’m planning on either renting a truck or using many trips with a car service to sell my collection to Midtown Comics, but this is by far the easiest way to go. Hopefully someone will go for this, because I’d like to use the money to buy an HDTV if and when we move (which hopefully will be in the near future). Anyway, go check it out if you live in the area, or just feel like reading over a five-second summary of a lifetime of collecting comics.

Although I do absolutely love my Dual Shock controllers to death, I also have a tendency to use them to death. I have two converter boxes that let me use PS* controllers on my computers, I can’t live without my GameCube Joybox, and that’s not even counting all those damn RPGs I play on my PS2. And while I do believe the Dual Shock 2 is the best gamepad ever made, it is not necessarily the most durable. I think Microsoft did a stellar job with the Xbox Controller S in terms of sheer durability, but the Dual Shock 2 has a thin and easily worn out cable, and those sticks get pretty loose and wonky after several years of heavy use.

With that all-important game I can’t talk about occupying so much of my time lately, I decided to finally get a new controller for my PS2, as my two original launch PS2 gamepads are on their last legs. While I’ve always been down on any wireless remote, Logitech finally hit on the perfect formula with the Cordless Action Controller for PS2. Read on for my full review.

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Apparently all that bible thumping on Bush’s part hasn’t done quite as much good as he thought it would…

L.A. Times: Conflicted Evangelicals Could Cost Bush Votes

(Via Electoral-Vote.com.)

For better or worse, the whole insane presidential race will come to an end on Tuesday. Although I briefly considered voting for either Michael Badnarik (the Libertarian candidate) or Ralph Nader and even momentarily considered writing in Al Gore, I will be voting for John Kerry. I do so with very little enthusiasm, but I’m not as down on Kerry as I was before the debates. I still think he’s been far too timid in this race, but he’s my candidate, so I’ve learned to live with the guy I voted for in the primary.

In any event, this will all be over on Tuesday, thank god. I have decided to do something rather strange for this event. I will be writing two completely separate blog entries: one to be posted if Kerry wins, and one to be posted if Kerry loses. Both will eventually be put online for all to read, although only one will go up on Tuesday or Wednesday (whenever the outcome is final). In the event of a long, drawn out court battle (have you read some of these worst case scenarios? They’re insane!), I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m hoping it won’t come down to that.

So check back on Wednesday for my reaction to the election. Either way, it’ll all be over once and for all.

The following is a discussion about Batman #633. the final chapter in Act Three of “War Games.” As such, it is loaded with spoilers. Do not continue reading unless you already have read this issue! (Or just don’t care).

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The World Series is over. Some team won with a minimal amount of rioting, from what I understand. Sunday is Halloween. So why the hell is Fox still waiting an extra week to air The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror for this year? I mean, I know we’re all dying to see The X-Files: Fight the Future and all, but wouldn’t it make more sense to air the Halloween episode on Halloween when you actually can for once?

Looks like someone’s finally suing Microsoft over that whole Thompson DVD drive issue. I had to replace my Xbox when I fell victim to that problem, and unfortunately, my second system has the same drive, so it’s only a matter of time before that one craps out on me too.

I doubt much will come of this suit, but at least someone’s doing something about it.

CNN: New Hannibal Lecter novel due next fall.

Let’s hope it’s better than Hannibal. Much better, please. While that book had its moments (most notably in the first half), it fell apart completely in the end. Hopefully this will take place before the events in Hannibal, as I’d really hate to read a novel about how Clarice and Hannibal lived happily ever after.

Update: It sounds like this will take place before Red Dragon. Phew.

(Or how I escaped from Butcher Bay and lived to tell the tale)

My review of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is up over at ShackReviews. I was delightfully surprised at how much I liked Riddick, even though I had relatively high expectations. Here’s an excerpt from my review:

Riddick (as I will refer to it from now on, as the full title doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue) is an interesting animal. It borrows quite liberally from games like Deus Ex and Half-Life, but it does so gracefully. This is a stealth-light FPS like Deus Ex, but it’s also just as much a pure FPS like Half-Life. And if you’re going to swipe from someone, it might as well be those two, which are among the very best games from the last five years.

Head over to teh Shack to read the whole thing.

The first info from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hit the web today. GameSpy’s got the first online preview, and there’s an update over at the official Elder Scrolls site. Both are definitely worth reading, although of particular note is this note from executive producer Todd Howard, who addresses concerns from fans with grace and good humor. Plus he spills the beans on some cool new stuff, including this enticing tidbit:

What!!?? No thrown items and crossbows? Hear me out here, because it will let you into our thought process. When we look at characters that like to do ranged combat, they mostly want to use bows and arrows. So instead of doing many types of ranged combat, we decided to stick with bows and arrows — but — it’s a grand implementation of bows and arrows. You feel the string draw, arrows arc properly, bounce realistically, and stick deep into the right materials. You can see the quiver on your back and type of arrows you have and there are tons of different bows and arrow types. So we trade having several types of ranged combat done in an average way, and get bows done in a grand way.

Sounds awesome to me. Not being able to conduct my annual E3 interview with Todd Howard (okay, so we only did it twice, but it was great to do) is something I do miss from being on the other side of the industry. Although I did peek my head into Bethesda’s booth at E3 this year to apologize in person, and I had a nice (if brief) conversation with the folk over there (including Todd). I’m thinking next year I’m going to have to barge my way in just so I can see the game (Bethesda’s booth is always by appointment-only).

In any event, the game looks just amazing, as evidenced by the screenshot below (did I mention that’s all in real-time? I’m pretty sure I did). The official site has a cool Oblivion wallpaper image, although they only have it in 1600×1200 and 1024×768. Since my LCD’s native resolution is 1280×1024, I letterboxed the image (after shrinking it to 1280×960) so it would look just right (example here). You can grab that on my .Mac page if you want it for yourself (and don’t have access to Photoshop or any other graphics editor).