loonyblog.

I have a lot of respect for the NY Times, and while I know they get facts wrong from time to time (everyone does), they’re usually pretty spot-on, and very much the paper of record. Which is why this article from today’s Times (caught by Joystiq) seems so bizarre to me. Here’s the offending portion, with the errors highlighted in red:

Those who have spent the day trading carbon credits have another opportunity to save the planet, this time from aliens in Halo 3, the third edition of the Xbox 360 game. The PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 5, a hyper-realistic, high-speed journey, is one of the best sellers for that Sony console, which starts at $299. Microsoft’s Xbox starts at $280. Both are built around the multicore Cell processor, which allows numerous tasks to be done simultaneously.

For those outside the industry, Halo 3 is the first Halo game for 360, GT5 isn’t out, the PS3 starts at $399 and only the PS3 runs on Cell.

Johnny Rotten at the UK Guitar Hero III launch party:

See, this is why you don’t hire burned out rock stars to promote your game. If you can stomach it, the full video is up here.

Also, note to Johnny: it ain’t the Sex Pistols without Sid Vicious.

I love Xbox Live (I really do), but I don’t like playing games online with strangers, because of stuff like this lovely video (thanks DToid):

What it is about Halo that brings out the 13 year old racist homophobes is beyond me, but it never fails. Games like Catan, Carcasonne and Uno (which are the ones I tend to play online anyway) don’t suffer from the same problem for the most part, but any shooter totally brings out the crazies.

I’ve been on Facebook for a little while now…it’s basically just a silly way to futz around when I should probably be doing something more important. Also it allowed me to weigh in on the all-important Minotaur vs. Centaur debate.

Every now and then I log on and change my “Jason Bergman is…” line to something random. Recent ones have included “at home”, “probably playing Guitar Hero III right now” and “out of control”. They’re just silly little things I put there for no particular reason.

The other day, having spent some time recently discussing the movie Network (a personal favorite), I put up there, “Jason Bergman is…mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.” I thought that was rather clever, and that people would get it, or at the very least, not even notice that it was there.

Apparently not.

I started getting messages from people either showing support, or asking me if I was okay. I even got contacted by a recruiter who wanted to know if I was unhappy with my job and was interested in looking elsewhere.

I swear, I had no idea people read these things. Really.

I’ve since changed it back to “Jason Bergman is…feelin’ fine”, a loose Simpsons reference. I doubt anyone will catch that, but at least they won’t think my life is falling apart and I’m desperately in need of consoling.

Dan Meth, a friend of mine from high school, has recently taken the internet world by storm with his extremely clever Flash animations…he’s actually been doing great work for years and years, but he’s totally taken off lately thanks to his weekly web ‘toon The Meth Minute 39, and the awesome power of social networks. Anyway, they’re all really clever, so you should watch them all, but this week’s, featuring Pink Floyd’s Syd Barret going to his accountant, is especially funny. Check it out:

Apparently Fark sponsored a category on Jeopardy, having its headlines as the clues to the show’s trademark answer-questions. Take a look:

Pretty cool. And very clever. I would expect nothing less from Fark.

I have just accomplished a major gaming milestone, and one I never quite expected to actually achieve. No, I haven’t managed to get Through the Fire and Flames on Expert (although I did get it on medium, so I consider that an achievement). I’ve actually completed the original Baldur’s Gate.

Some background: since it was first released in 1998, Baldur’s Gate has represented to me the exact opposite of my taste in gaming. It revels in Dungeons & Dragons lore and rules. This is a game where the math isn’t hidden, it’s front and center. I have always preferred RPGs that keep the numbers behind the scenes, or at least make it somewhat accessible. Japanese RPGs, like Final Fantasy, pretty much hide them completely, but I’m a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, and those have all the same math (okay, maybe not the same math, but there’s some math there), they just hide it a lot better. Baldur’s Gate is all about dice rolling. As someone who has no connection to that legacy, I just find it annoying.

Back in 1998, when the game was garnering rave reviews, and my nerdier friends were playing the heck out of it, I received a review copy from Interplay. Despite several attempts, I just couldn’t do it. The game was obtuse in the extreme, and just didn’t want to be loved by someone like me.

But things have changed in the last nine years. For one thing, I’ve come to recognize BioWare as one of the very, very best development houses in the industry, and I want to see all they have to offer. And of course, thanks to games like KOTOR (which did use the D20 ruleset, they just hid it really well), my tolerance for math has increased significantly. So as part of the same “last chance to see” tour that has already led me through the brilliance that is Planescape: Torment, I decided to play the entire Baldur’s Gate cycle. If I don’t play these games now (before my daughter is born), I know I’m never, ever gonna get to them.

So, Baldur’s Gate. Where to start? This game is a giant ball of frustration. But it’s also quite good. But frustrating. And enjoyable. Somehow.

I can’t remember the last time I was this conflicted about a game. On the one hand, I liked the story and the characters, and the general flow of the game. I could see why someone would totally love it. On the other hand, the D&D rules are insane, and even after doing the ol’ RTFM, I still don’t know what most of it means.

This game predates the age of the integrated tutorial, but still, I expect some of it to make sense to the complete layman. But no, I ended up having to do a lot of FAQ reading just to understand why things were happening the way they were.

But even leaving that aside, the game is just way too difficult. It takes a really long time to get a decent party that’s capable of standing up to some of the easiest enemies, and even once you’re as powerful as you’re going to get, enemies can throw a single attack at you that kills you with one shot. And I won’t even touch that last fight, which I had to cheat to get past (apparently I’m not alone…I asked around, and it seemed like everyone had their own cheat strategy for getting past that damn fight).

But I enjoyed it! Somehow. I went into it knowing that this is the game that paved the way for the real classic, so in many ways this was all just a trainer for the character I’ll be moving on to the sequel. A long, frustrating trainer. I’ve decided to skip Tales of the Sword Coast, since that’s just side quests and is unrelated to the core storyline. Instead I’ll just import my character into BG2 and continue the story.

But first a much needed break. I need to play a few nice, simple games between now and then. I’ve got until March before my time is no longer my own, and I fully intend to make the most of it.

Well that didn’t take long…simple instructions for getting rid of that horrible 3D dock in Leopard have surfaced. That’s a huge relief. Now all I need is for Unsanity to get all my haxies working again (you never appreciate them that much until they’re all gone) and for the menu bar to be less hideous and I’ll be reasonably content with Leopard.