Classic Spider-Man pose.

Now, I usually like to admit when I’m wrong about something, especially when I WANT to be wrong about it. So I will admit that I’ve always been skeptical about this newer series depicting my favorite web slinger. I looked at the cartoony character animation style and thought, “gross, couldn’t they have tried a little harder? It looks weird. It’s too simple. This show probably isn’t good. I don’t know if I could get past the character drawings”.

I recently finished watching the newest Spider-Man cartoon series, titled Spectacular Spider-Man, and let me tell ya, it was excellent. I quickly got past the art style. Although I can’t say I particularly liked it, but I got passed it. Really it was mostly the villains I had trouble with (like Green Goblin’s giant chin), but even that turned out to be not a big deal.

I still am having trouble getting over how good of a show Spectacular Spider-Man was overall, and I’m going to give you some insight on why. Fans, you might know what I’m talking about, others…maybe? To start out, it was refreshing to see Peter Parker as still quite young. He’s in high school, and he’s got a lot to deal with in his life. Sometimes being Spider-Man is the least of his worries. He has to juggle around school, friends, girls, a job (taking pictures of himself as Spidey is still a job), and taking care of his dear Aunt May, all while fighting crime bosses, masterminds, and waves of super villains. As hectic as all of these things are, the show is put together very well and balances all aspects of Peter Parker’s life into each episode. This very thing is what made Spider-Man so popular in the first place. He was relatable while still being a kick-ass super hero. Props to the creators for portraying this perfectly.

The storyline behind Spectacular Spider-Man wasn’t dead on with the traditional story that some of us grew up knowing and hold as true, but that is okay. A few changes helped enhance the overall feel of the characters and plot. Also, all of the characters are there, which is nice. In fact, you even see faces of most of the bad guys, which I don’t think any previous Spider-Man shows have done. The biggest difference I can think of is Eddy Brock and Peter being good friends since childhood, which we all know changes later on. Surprisingly for a cartoon show, S. S-M has a very continuous plotline throughout, and there is a pretty big story happening in the background as crime lords are battling for supremacy of the streets of New York, and things begin to get more complicated towards the end of Season 2. I was very happy with the depth in story that was taken, and while this isn’t quite as complicated as…say.. LOST, for a super hero cartoon, it was perfect.

The characters of the show were what brought everything together. Every character, classic or not, was done with a special touch. Everyone had their own personality and problems, and when you look at them you believe they exist and you say to yourself, “man, that’s totally how _______ would act”. And you can always expect Spidey’s normal onslaught of corny jokes to come full swing, but luckily even those are easy to bare. Another thing that I found to be a good formula, was that the writers gave the other high school kids and minor characters an equal amount of importance as the villains, if not even more. The drama that ensues during the show is even somewhat believable. Love triangles(or squares?), popularity problems, cliques. You name it. However. By far the greatest depiction of a classic character in the history of… I don’t even know, ever?, was in this show. If you don’t watch the show for the action, or high school drama, or crazy scheming villains, then watch it for the greatness that is J. Jonah Jameson. I can’t even count how many times I would burst out laughing at this man. Probably every time he was present somewhere. The creators portrayed J.J. almost, if not better, than J.K. Simmons in the recent films. He was absolutely hilarious, and beyond spot of for that character (but this seemed to be true for all of the characters, honestly).

Cast of some Characters.

As a quick note, I’d like to say that the voice acting was all-round spot on. On all parts, this was some of the best voice acting in an american show I’ve ever experienced.

Finally, the action. Which is just that. Action. And it’s solid action. Everything moved fluidly and smoothly, both Spidey and all the villains. Spider-Man had all of his normal moves and common poses while flying through the air and swinging around the city. They definitely took from the comics, and it payed off. The villains and all their gadgets and powers and whatever they had were well done and helped increased the action sequences to perfection.

Again, all of these things are melded together extremely well to create a fantastic show.

Warning. Spoilers ahead.

Now, having said all of that, there’s one single problem with the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. It’s been canceled. Yup, you heard me. Canned. All because of the transfer of rights from Sony to Marvel, then Marvel being bought by the Walt Disney Company, someone somewhere decided that Spectacular was to be canceled to make way for an Ultimate Spider-Man series coming in 2011. This is a huge shame. Spectacular S-M received amazing reviews from tons of sources, and was one of the best American cartoon shows I’ve seen or heard of on TV in a long time. It’s a shame that you can find such terrible trash of cartoon shows on TV, yet something as well put together as Spectacular S-M gets tossed, and before it truly gets GREAT in the story.

Black Cat was barely introduced but definitely had a larger role coming on, Peter just got together with Gwen Stacy (sort of) after 2 seasons of them having difficulties, Harry didn’t become Hobgoblin or the New Goblin or whatever he would have been since his Dad got taken down, Eddy just went to prison where he would have met Cledus Kasady (also known as Carnage, the most ruthless villain ever known). There was just still so much to happen! I can’t believe I’ll never get to see it! And who knows how good Ultimate Spider-Man will be…It just kills me. I might have to go back and read every Spider-Man comic I can find just to fill this void in my soul.

Now, all you who read that despite spoilers who haven’t seen the show. You should still watch it. It’s only 26 short episodes, and it’s a lot of fun.

Villains of Spectacular Spider-Man

For about the first week of playing, Reach was basically a madhouse of stuff going on. People were getting use to the load outs and armor abilities, and believe me, I was one of them. I didn’t lose many matches, but I can’t claim that I helped WIN any matches either. I went most games with a negative K/D spread, and would end the playing sessions somewhat frustrated. I was a pretty good Halo 1/2/3 player. Not professional grade but good enough to win most of the time and still enjoy the game when I lost. Playing Reach was almost the equivalent of picking up the original XBox controller and playing Halo 1 (my first experience with a FPS using a dual thumbstick controller that barely fit in my hands). I stepped into Reach and it felt like I was starting all over. I couldn’t kill worth shit, I couldn’t survive anything, and I had no idea where I was on the map half the time.

The additions of having loadouts with armor abilities throws in a HUGE new variable into the classic FPS Multiplayer scene that was the Halo Universe. I still haven’t decided if it adds strategy to the mix, or just creates a new type of chaos that is jumbled into the typical playing style you use to find in Halo multiplayer (which was sort of chaotic in its own way already). Now, instead of seeing someone masterfully make a crouch-jump onto a ledge that gives an advantage or allowed them to escape, you will see a person flying from the other side of the map, chucking grenades and firing at you with a pistol (while getting shot at by another pistol somewhere else on the map). Or when you used to have just enough time to get that final shot with the Battle Rifle to snatch a kill (and feel satisfied doing so), now you get 1 or 2 shots off and your target has already sprinted into cover and around 3 corners (thus avoiding that last ditch effort grenade you’re about to throw). It’s just so different. Maybe it just adds so much extra strategy to a game that didn’t have tons to begin with and it’ll just take time to fully realize all of it? Only time will tell.

By the time the beta was ending I began to get the hang of it all. I started to do much better in all the game types, I would use my loadouts wisely for the most part, and I got used to the 3-4 maps they released. The new game types were interesting and somewhat fun. I feel as though the maps were not good fits with the game types they threw at us. Invasion was interesting with it’s single map but I still feel like they could have been better. That’s one thing about the transition from Halo 2 to Halo 3 that I remember, was that I loved the Halo 2 maps. I don’t always remember why, but I’m pretty sure it was true. Halo 3 maps were a little iffy a lot of the time, so I hope they pull through and give us some good maps to play on, and give us a good amount of maps from the start, none of this DLC after 1 week crap that you have to pay for. The Reach maps so far were pretty unimpressive in my eyes. Fun, and good choices to show off some of the armor abilities (jetpacks), but as far as maps go, I was pretty unsatisfied. Although adding names to all the areas of the map was pretty brilliant.

Overall I would say my experience was a fairly enjoyable one. I will add that having a buddy come over to have some beers and play some made it a lot more fun. Even though there was a point in that first week where I said, “you know, playing this beta is almost convincing me NOT to buy this game when it comes out”, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand by the statement. For one, it’s a Halo game and I’m a fan, and would want to at least play the campaign (which I’m hoping is excellent), secondly, I’m sure I’ll get used to it and it’ll turn into a blast playing online. Maybe it’ll even get some of my old friends who used to play with me back on.

Now, having said that. Here is my mock Dear Bungie letter that states my concerns:

Dear Bungie,

Here are some things to change for the Halo: Reach release.

Human grenades – too powerful

Jumping sucks now. Can we get some ups please?

Gun bloom – we didn’t need it in the first 4 games, why now? At least step in down a notch

Voting for the game type is nice, but its also annoying, maybe just stick to the Veto system

Why am I slow as molasses?! Just because we can sprint now doesn’t mean normal pace should be slower

The DMR is just trash. Give me my BR back.

The Assault Rifle shouldn’t take more than 1 clip to finish a guy off, thank you very much. No more reload battles or lame double beat down battles.

At first I was mad that the beat down didn’t carry over the shield, but I got used to it, however, I’m still not okay with the fact that 2 beat downs is more powerful than bullets.

The assassinations are pretty kickass, even when they are glitchy they pretty much rule.

Not sure how I feel about being able to block a sword attack, but I like that you’re thinkin out of the box on that one.

More armor options would be nice. Or maybe if the armor actual had an effect on the battlefield. Think about that! Upgrades that actually upgrade your guy?!

Maybe tell us what goes in to the ranking system? I never know for sure if I kicked ass or not because my rating will blow while everything else was pretty sweet.

Get rid of the radar jamming while using the cloak ability. It’s supposed to give you the upper hand, not completely warn the enemy you’re coming AND screw over your ability to tell where the enemy is. Seriously.

K, I think that’s about it. This will probably be one of the many games I’ll be getting by the end of the year.

I’ve been a Halo fan since the beginning, and it’s one of my favorites, especially because of the multi-player aspects. Halo: Reach seems like it will not disappoint. The multi-player isn’t reinventing anything, just adding to what made the others great. Things to expect include new game types, weapons, maps, and maybe the most interesting and exciting thing: Armor Abilities. In Reach, you will be able to select different load-outs at the beginning of the game and when you die, that will give you new starting weapons or armor. Each of the different pieces of armor will give you a certain power. The powers that I’ve seen so far are sprinting, a jet pack (but watch out, there is fall damage this time), cloaking (which also adds a radar scrambler effect that makes the enemy radar go crazy with red dots), and a super shield (but again, watch out because while you are invulnerable for a short time, you also can’t move).

New game modes include Stockpile and Headhunter. Stockpile is like a neutral CTF on steroids. You will have 2 teams on a map with a number of flags set up around the map. The goal is to collect these flags, bring them to your base/hill area and keep them there as long as possible. Every minute (or when the game timer ends in :00), for every flag in your area you get a point. First to 10 wins. You gotta protect your flags though, because all it takes is for the other team to run in and throw the flag out of your area for you to not get that point. Definitely an interesting take on flag games, and with the armor abilities you can assume these games will get very intense. Headhunter is a new take on the oddball mode. Instead you will be collecting skulls from other people as you kill them, but when you die, you’ll lose yours as well. You’ll need to carry the skulls to a point on the map to secure a score. This, too could turn into ferociously intense battles, but I personally see it to be pretty frustrating (clean up kills will make it difficult to win).

All in all, I’m very excited to start playing on Monday (May 3rd). Check back here soon to see my impressions of the beta. It will end on May 19th, but I may be too eager to express my opinion on Reach’s multi-player, so keep your eye open for a First Impressions post. I’m looking forward to the strategies that arise from these changes, and I’ll try to fill you in on whatever I experience.

For anyone out there that plans on participating in the beta, look for me online, my gamertag is T00MuchRazMataz (those are zero’s).

Tosh.0 has got to be one of the top 3 funniest shows on television. Even if it is a internet clip show, it is hilarious. Watch it every chance you get. It’s on comedy central, and it’s mostly good because the dude doesn’t hold anything back. The show is put together well, so it’s not JUST him ripping on internet clips. Web redemptions for some people in these videos can be pretty awesome. Thatss all about that. You can probably watch episodes at comedycentral.com.

HOLY CRAP! I just saw a commercial while watching Futurama for ALL NEW FUTURAMA EPISODES COMING IN JUNE! This may be some of the greatest news ever. The world has been waiting for new Futurama episodes for years now, and it looks like we will get more than just 4 straight to DVD movies. If you don’t know, Futurama is also a great show. It is set in the year 3000, which really opens a lot of doors for each episode. It is very funny, and has somewhat of a continuous story. Anyway, just wanted to express my excitement of that. Here’s a little treat.

I'm in the middle as Bender, with roommates as Zapp Brannegan and The Professor.

So it’s been awhile and I have a few things I’ve been wanting to say, but keep blowing off my site. Let’s see if I can remember them all.

First off, my bedroom has gotten an overhaul last weekend and I have strategically placed my desk facing the TV so I’ve been watching a bit more lately. One show that I’ve been watching for years and years, even re-runs all the time, is That 70’s Show. I just wanted to spread the word on how great I think this show is. In it’s 8 season run, it is probably one of the best sitcom shows ever made. It hit on serious themes(both in the times and normal ones like relationships and stuff), was hilarious, and had a perfect cast full of excellent characters. If you don’t watch the show, you should, it reruns on tons of channels, and while it has a somewhat continuous plot, isn’t completely necessary to watch in order (but if you have the choice to, do it anyway). I wanted to say more than this, but am suddenly not in the mood. What else…

(some time has passed since I started writing and now I can’t remember what I wanted to say)

So I was reading on Gamespot.com today and saw a Q&A for Guild Wars 2, and let me tell ya, I’m really excited about this. I’ve only barely touched on Guild Wars 1, and I plan on playing and getting through it, and the Eye of the North expansion before GW2 comes out next year hopefully. I’d like to take this time to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to join me. It has no monthly fees, has a more strategic take on powers and combat, and personally I think it has better graphics than WoW (at least more realistic IMO). GW2 looks to overhaul a lot of GW1 and make it bigger and better in many ways. Read the Q&A to see for yourself. It definitely looks like a MMO I could get hooked on if I had people to play with. GW1 is still pretty fun and I’d like to start advancing through the story so if there are any takers out there that want to join me, let me know asap (I picked up a copy of both Guild Wars and the Eye of the North Expansion for 8 bucks each at Half Price Books, so you could probably find them cheap somewhere).

So I bought the first Trigun manga this week, I’m excited to start reading it…

Man…I really can not remember what else I wanted to talk about…oh well. If I remember I’ll just come back.

I’m not trying to be mean, I have a reason to not be friends with Ubisoft anymore, and it’s not because I don’t pick up many of their games. It’s because of a recent announcement that could get OTHER game developers/publishers to fall in line. I came across a news article at PSXExtreme that said in an attempt to go eco-friendly, Ubisoft will stop producing in-the-box paper game manuals for their games. Sure, they can quote how many BTUs or CO2 or whatever is created every year from printing game manuals, and it might be big (but I doubt it is), but I still believe it would be a bigger crime to leave out the game manuals for games. I’d also like to mention my skepticism that their real motivation was not to “go green”, but to just save money.

This really is a terrible move on their part, and I pray that other developers (who I actually buy games from) don’t see this and think, “yeah, lets ‘go green’..and by green we mean save money at the cost of our consumer’s happiness! mwahaha”. Having a digital manual would be completely worthless to us gamers. More people would just get up, get on their laptop, and look up solutions to their problems than click on their in game manuals, and as absurd as that sounds, it’s probably true.

It seems silly to argue over game manuals (to some), but think about it. What’s the first thing you do when you open up your game? You look at the manual on the ride home, or maybe while it’s installing. It only adds to the excitement of owning a new game. If the manual was done right, it would add to the thrill and feeling of entering into this new world, and truly engulf you.

When you think about it, them not printing off manuals may be a “green” move, but you know they are saving plenty of money, and yet, they will still expect us to fish out $60+ for a game, not to mention any DLC(which they don’t even pay packaging, shipping, or paper fees for).

Some other people make a good argument, too, about how most paper comes from 2 sources: tree farms where we plant trees specifically to make paper, and recycling. I feel like the 2 sources aren’t the worst thing to the environment, and that they could cut back somewhere else if they wanted to “go green” in a more productive way. Good intentions, bad execution Ubisoft. If this starts a movement for all game developers, you will go from not being my friend, to being my enemy.

What SHOULD be happening in the gaming world when it comes to game manuals, is 1) they should be in full color, 2) they should be BIGGER and have MORE info in regards to backstory, characters, and anything else and 3)…well just more emphasis on the first 2.

Anyway, so I went to a gun range the other day with one of my roommates and we decided to shoot a 9mm pistol off, and apparently, I am really good at shooting a gun. The only REAL gun I’ve shot before was a very old pistol from like WWII. It was my grandfather’s who was in the Navy and my grandmother kept it in her tiny house in the middle of nowhere for safety. I didn’t get to shoot at targets or anything, just a pile of trash or sand I think, so that doesn’t really count when it comes to accuracy.

My first 5 shots off were all almost perfect. The target was only maybe 5 yards out, but I hit all 5 inside the circle with a X in it. I was proud, and surprised, and my roommate was kind of angry since he’s been shooting before and wants to pick it up as a hobby. He didn’t do quite as good, but steadily improved as the session went on.

I have to say it felt pretty cool to shoot and be good at it. I was wearing my glasses so even though I did pretty well at 10 yards out, I felt like I could have done better with contacts in (cause I had to wear goggles too so goggles + glasses wasn’t too great). Still a fun experience (and kind of expensive), and I could see myself going back, and maybe even doing competition eventually (that is why my roommate is getting into it, he wants to do competitive shooting with some friends).

I should probably mention that even though I enjoyed shooting and everything, I’m very against hunting for sport. Hunting for food is one thing and I don’t mind it quite as much, but hunting for fun, just to hang a head from your wall is just wrong, in my opinion. Really, hunting for any reason besides food, I would say I’m against.

I might take some pics of my targets to show off a bit, so maybe look for those later.

For him, it's not always about luck.

Trigun is the story of a guy named Vash the Stampede, aka The Humanoid Typhoon as some like to call him. He has a reputation of destruction, murder, and being a total womanizer. On an unknown planet, we follow Vash from town to town on his journey(I say journey, but he really just likes to wander), but his luck seems to make this difficult for him, as it seems like everywhere he goes, things just get destroyed. Did I mention there is a $60,000,000,000 reward on his head? Yeah, not going to help you out on your travels. The people of this planet hold him responsible for destroying an entire city. He is soon joined by two young ladies who work for an insurance group that are ordered to watch him and analyze the damages that are usually considered to be Vash’s fault. Along the way you meet some interesting characters and towns and you really start to get an idea of who these characters are and what this planet is like. There is some mystery behind these civilizations and people, and you will start to wonder what their history really is.

The cast of recurring characters isn’t quite as long as some anime, but this allows the audience to get to know them much better. You’ll have a closer connection to them, learn to sympathize and empathize with them, and you’ll be sure to remember them for years to come because of this.

Here's the main group.

There is plenty of action in this show, as Vash the Stampede is a total badass. Having a $60 billion bounty on your head will surely bring out some crazy folks, and while Vash spends most of his time dodging bullets, you really begin to understand how talented he is and why he has earned his name. Now don’t worry, this show isn’t purely action all the time. There are plenty of laughs to go along with it, too. Early on you discover that Vash isn’t always as serious as you would think a murdering Humanoid Typhoon would be, and start to feel for this light-hearted guy (and the strange black cat that shows up everywhere can catch you off guard :-P).

About 1/3 of the way through the series(a total of 26 episodes), there is a noticeable change in the overall tone of the show. Things gradually get more serious as you continue and you begin to learn more about our main character, his past, and the struggle and pain he has endured over the years. This change in tone is for the better, and really adds depth to the story, characters and setting. Don’t let the first few episodes deter you from continuing on. This isn’t another formulaic, episodic show about some dude who shows up somewhere, fights, wins, and continues looking for something (although this does happen often..hmmm). I know this because that’s what I thought it was like before watching it straight through. I used to catch random episodes on Adult Swim years back and didn’t know there was a rich, deep, emotional story behind the cool fights.

This is an older show, and the animation style proves it. This doesn’t mean lower quality in any way, just in the style of the drawings. It isn’t full of lush rainbow-y colors, or perfectly shaped beautiful characters, but for Trigun, this is a good thing. In fact, I believe that the animation, style, and art are perfect. Dead on for creating the feeling of a “advanced” or sci-fi western setting, and it really pulls you in. It is extremely well done and even though the scenery is mostly desert, it is a good looking show with plenty of detail and color where it’s needed.

You wouldn't think this guy's nickname would be "The Humanoid Typhoon"...

Don’t miss this one. It is full of memorable characters, and an interesting story that draws you in to this world and it’s history.

TRIGUN – 8.8 (Overall, excellent show. Highly recommended and worth the watch)

Breakdown: Story – 9.2, Animation – 8.8, Art – 8.7, Sound/Music – 8.5

I proudly mark this as one of my favorite anime of all time, and look forward to cosplaying some of these characters. Watching has also made me interested in checking out the manga.

I swear there’s more to me than talking about video games…like movies! I saw a few movies this last week that I could write reviews for. Mostly How to Train Your Dragon (actually I saw it once with Dev, then again with my family).

Sorry to bring it up again, but I started on my DBZ costume today. Didn’t get too far, but a good start. Horay me.

Alright, thats all for now. Just wanted to post somethin for fun.