I'd like to dump my long-distance carrier, because long distance is a ripoff, and I'd like to do it online, because I don't trust the CSRs.
However, AT&T has thwarted me. For three straight days now, their site has been unavailable to me. No reason why, no apologies, just hey, you can't get in, try again later. And why not stop by att.com, because what better way to sell you on more of our crap than by not letting you see what you've got now?
Yeah, the whole reconsolidation of the phone industry, not a good thing.
The problem is that my local cable company sucks, so I won't get digital cable/broadband through them, and I want Sunday Ticket, so I have to have DirecTV, so I need a phone line.
At least my DSL service is pretty good.
Anyway, AT&T sucks, but everyone knows that.
----------------
Now playing: Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
via FoxyTunes
A profile of zlionsfan
- zlionsfan
- Indiana, United States
- I like cats. I play a lot of games. Sometimes I develop web-based applications; this keeps my current employer from firing me too often. My favorite color is blue, or maybe green.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Cyberball!
Yeah, I know, I should be blogging more, but I've been busy, running here and there. Nothing like being rained on at Wrigley, you know.
Anyway, Cyberball is coming to XBLA next week. Sweet! I might have to play a couple of MAME games just to get in the mood for it.
Anyway, Cyberball is coming to XBLA next week. Sweet! I might have to play a couple of MAME games just to get in the mood for it.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Hurray!
I mean, "It's about f-in time." That's not nearly so friendly, though. Apologies to those who prefer milder language: for you, pretend that I said "fire-truckin'".
Someone finally figured out that chess would make a good XBLA game, and better yet, it's not alone. Let me get this straight: for 400 points, we get chess, checkers, reversi, and mancala, and we paid how much for Pac-Man?
Anyway, good to see the trend toward thinkers' games (Catan, Carcassonne) is continuing.
Someone finally figured out that chess would make a good XBLA game, and better yet, it's not alone. Let me get this straight: for 400 points, we get chess, checkers, reversi, and mancala, and we paid how much for Pac-Man?
Anyway, good to see the trend toward thinkers' games (Catan, Carcassonne) is continuing.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
PS2 review: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (6/10)
Warning: spoilers involved. Don't read this unless you want to know all the tracks in the game.
Let's go through each set, one at a time.
whaaaaaaa?
no.
Not only did they defame the game by including a cover of the song (hey, the original was a '70s song anyway), but it's a bad cover. Bad. Loss of one point.
I mean, seriously. There's a White Lion song in here and it isn't Wait?
um ...
that's not the title. Those lyrics don't even appear in the song. This is inexcusable. Loss of a point. (At least the song is good.)
Okay, it's nice that it has Mozart stuff in it, I guess, but seriously? This is the best you had? From the '80s? Seriously?
I never heard this song before. Sorry, not impressed.
So that's it. Hmm ... where to begin.
No Van Halen? No AC/DC? No Bon Jovi? No Cinderella? No Def Leppard? No Dokken? No Tesla? No Autograph?
And that's just from my own collection.
No additional songs to unlock. (Maybe the developers ran out of their own tunes to include. Ha ha. Oh wait, that probably wasn't a joke.)
No career score. Like GH II, there isn't even a cumulative score for each level like they had in GH I.
This is very Madden-ish: the exact same game, only with new songs. (Actually, it's not even as much as you got in GH II.) At least they have the working hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Sorry to say it, but I don't recommend this game at full price. You won't get your money's worth. I hope Rock Band and GH III are worth it, because we're definitely getting screwed for the time being, between this and the lack of track packs (four in all, after the last one, but still only three songs per pack).
zlionsfan's rating: 6 rounds of sardonic applause out of 10.
Let's go through each set, one at a time.
Set 1 songs
- Quiet Riot: (Bang Your Head) Metal Health A good start.
- Go-Go's: We Got The Beat Kind of a surprise, but it works here.
- Flock of Seagulls: I Ran (So Far Away) [as performed by] Not bad, but it seems like they took some of the keyboards and made them into guitar notes.
- Accept: Balls To The Wall Standard metal fare.
Set 1 encore
- Skid Row: 18 And Life Nice encore tune. Moves around a bit, but not too difficult on Hard.
Set 2 songs
- Scorpions: No One Like You Good song, and a good way to start the set.
- Eddie Money: Shakin' Not bad, I like this one too.
- Asia: Heat Of The Moment My favorite Asia song, one of the best in the game. Too bad it's not the original and they don't do the guitar solo correctly.
- White Lion: Radar Love
whaaaaaaa?
no.
Not only did they defame the game by including a cover of the song (hey, the original was a '70s song anyway), but it's a bad cover. Bad. Loss of one point.
I mean, seriously. There's a White Lion song in here and it isn't Wait?
Set 2 encore
- Limozeen: Because, It's Midnite Um ... what? Did someone break into the game and wreck the last half of set 2? This isn't even worth putting in the game, and on top of it, you won't get points from it. I posted a perfect 55K. boo.
Set 3 songs
- Dio: Holy Diver Okay, back on track. Good song.
- Vapors: Turning Japanese Uh, whatever. The pop influence, I guess.
- 38 Special: Hold On Loosely I really like this song too. Not a bad set so far.
- Scandal: The Warrior [as performed by] Nice. Get rid of Turning Japanese and we could have had a really solid set.
Set 3 encore
- Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock [as performed by] Awesome! The one thing they should have added was the lead singer asking the crowd what they wanted to do with their lives. This was a solid set.
Set 4 songs
- Romantics: What I Like About You Not a bad song.
- Police: Synchronicity II Sting is not a good singer to have to copy.
- Krokus: Ballroom Blitz I couldn't tell right away if this was real or not. I like Krokus' version better than the original.
- Oingo Boingo: Only A Lad Um ... this isn't Karaoke Revolution.
Set 4 encore
- Ratt: Round And Round Nice. Songs by the two artists at the first real concert I went to see (they opened for Billy Squier).
Set 5 songs
- Poison: Ain't Nothin' But A Good Time
um ...
that's not the title. Those lyrics don't even appear in the song. This is inexcusable. Loss of a point. (At least the song is good.)
- Billy Squier: Lonely Is The Night Good song.
- Faster Pussycat: Bathroom Wall Hadn't heard this one before, but it's not bad.
- X: Los Angeles Who?
Set 5 encore
- Iron Maiden: Wrathchild Nice. I forgot about this one. Unfortunately, The Trooper is 10x cooler.
Set 6 songs
- Judas Priest: Electric Eye [as performed by] Hadn't heard this one before. Nice touch to get their version of it.
- Dead Kennedys: Police Truck One punk song per game, huh? It's not a bad song, I guess.
- Winger: Seventeen Nice song, but not sure this is the type of song for this set.
- Anthrax: Caught In A Mosh eh.
Final encore
- Extreme: Play With Me
Okay, it's nice that it has Mozart stuff in it, I guess, but seriously? This is the best you had? From the '80s? Seriously?
I never heard this song before. Sorry, not impressed.
So that's it. Hmm ... where to begin.
No Van Halen? No AC/DC? No Bon Jovi? No Cinderella? No Def Leppard? No Dokken? No Tesla? No Autograph?
And that's just from my own collection.
No additional songs to unlock. (Maybe the developers ran out of their own tunes to include. Ha ha. Oh wait, that probably wasn't a joke.)
No career score. Like GH II, there isn't even a cumulative score for each level like they had in GH I.
This is very Madden-ish: the exact same game, only with new songs. (Actually, it's not even as much as you got in GH II.) At least they have the working hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Sorry to say it, but I don't recommend this game at full price. You won't get your money's worth. I hope Rock Band and GH III are worth it, because we're definitely getting screwed for the time being, between this and the lack of track packs (four in all, after the last one, but still only three songs per pack).
zlionsfan's rating: 6 rounds of sardonic applause out of 10.
Friday, July 27, 2007
6s
Got what's probably my first 600 series, a 622. (208-217-197) I still can't put more than four strikes together. That last game raised my skill a whole 6 points, to 1206.
Wait till my next precipitous plunge. I don't think I can afford a 170 now. Poor me.
I wonder what happens at 2000? Guess I'll find out in tennis ...
Wait till my next precipitous plunge. I don't think I can afford a 170 now. Poor me.
I wonder what happens at 2000? Guess I'll find out in tennis ...
Big hair, loud music, and regrets
It's true. Rocks the 80s is here, arriving promptly on the 26th (although they did that awful hold-the-game-until-we-say thing that I dislike; I guess the flip side is that I know I'll get it on launch day). It was almost like going to a high school reunion, running into an old flame, and making plans to hook up that evening.
Don't get me wrong. It was good - heck, parts of it were great - but really, it wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and honestly, it's probably because my expectations were too high. This was only supposed to be GH II with '80s songs, and that's exactly what it is. After all, there's a reason why she's an old flame ... and remember, your friend's cousin is coming into town later this year, and she's supposed to be smoking hot.
I'll have a more detailed review later (with spoilers, sorry, but it would be hard to review it accurately without listing all the tracks).
Don't get me wrong. It was good - heck, parts of it were great - but really, it wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and honestly, it's probably because my expectations were too high. This was only supposed to be GH II with '80s songs, and that's exactly what it is. After all, there's a reason why she's an old flame ... and remember, your friend's cousin is coming into town later this year, and she's supposed to be smoking hot.
I'll have a more detailed review later (with spoilers, sorry, but it would be hard to review it accurately without listing all the tracks).
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Low red count
Calle passed her first blood test. The second one was today, with chemo scheduled for tomorrow.
The hospital called me back today. Turns out her red blood cell count was about half of the lowest acceptable level, so we canceled the appointment. I've got antibiotics to give her, and next week, she'll go back in for another blood test. If that's okay, we can proceed with chemo.
Naturally, she doesn't care. Looks like the same old Calle, except with a bit less fur (the stomach fur is starting to grow back; the neck and leg won't stay regrown until we're done because they need the leg for chemo and the neck for blood work).
Well, she probably won't like 14 doses of antibiotics. Neither will I. I did get a useful tip, though. We'll see how it works out.
The hospital called me back today. Turns out her red blood cell count was about half of the lowest acceptable level, so we canceled the appointment. I've got antibiotics to give her, and next week, she'll go back in for another blood test. If that's okay, we can proceed with chemo.
Naturally, she doesn't care. Looks like the same old Calle, except with a bit less fur (the stomach fur is starting to grow back; the neck and leg won't stay regrown until we're done because they need the leg for chemo and the neck for blood work).
Well, she probably won't like 14 doses of antibiotics. Neither will I. I did get a useful tip, though. We'll see how it works out.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
AOL sucks
Football.
Their fantasy football site is awful. Still is. But the commissioner likes it.
Also, it's free.
So my job is to document why it sucks so that we can compare it to better sites and use one next season (or maybe this season).
Let's see:
Slow updates. It was not at all uncommon for Tuesday to roll around without final scores and standings.
Counterintuitive design. If you saw a list of items like this:
Views » Team Records » Standings » Head to Head » Hall of Fame
you'd think it was where you were in the site, right? So under Views, there would be Team Records ... but that's not how it works. These are all equal options under Views.
There doesn't seem to be any place that shows past champions or past playoff results.
That's all for now. More later, I expect.
Their fantasy football site is awful. Still is. But the commissioner likes it.
Also, it's free.
So my job is to document why it sucks so that we can compare it to better sites and use one next season (or maybe this season).
Let's see:
Slow updates. It was not at all uncommon for Tuesday to roll around without final scores and standings.
Counterintuitive design. If you saw a list of items like this:
Views » Team Records » Standings » Head to Head » Hall of Fame
you'd think it was where you were in the site, right? So under Views, there would be Team Records ... but that's not how it works. These are all equal options under Views.
There doesn't seem to be any place that shows past champions or past playoff results.
That's all for now. More later, I expect.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Wii Virtual Console review: Gradius III (6/10), $8
Oh no, it won't be like Xbox Live. For one thing, I already own most of the games I'd want to play, and I still have the original systems (NES, N64, and Genesis). For another, well, they're not new.
Anyway, Gradius III is pretty much like you played it on the SNES: same preset ship configuration, same customization options, same gameplay, same customizable controls.
The Classic controller is very lightweight, almost too much so. The default configuration is almost unplayable (you've got shoulder buttons - use them), but it's very easy to reconfigure.
For some reason, the game doesn't size properly on an HDTV. Yeah, I know, the Wii itself doesn't provide HD graphics, but the regular Wii games are sized right. Hey, put in a little extra work and let us configure video (16:9 or 4:3). As a result, you can't tell what your score is, because it's off the top of the screen.
It does, however, save your high scores. Hear that, Microsoft? It saves your high scores.
So it's a nice little game if you enjoyed it in the past, but if you didn't, it's not really a game I'd recommend. Play one of the more modern versions.
zlionsfan's rating: 6 options out of 10.
Anyway, Gradius III is pretty much like you played it on the SNES: same preset ship configuration, same customization options, same gameplay, same customizable controls.
The Classic controller is very lightweight, almost too much so. The default configuration is almost unplayable (you've got shoulder buttons - use them), but it's very easy to reconfigure.
For some reason, the game doesn't size properly on an HDTV. Yeah, I know, the Wii itself doesn't provide HD graphics, but the regular Wii games are sized right. Hey, put in a little extra work and let us configure video (16:9 or 4:3). As a result, you can't tell what your score is, because it's off the top of the screen.
It does, however, save your high scores. Hear that, Microsoft? It saves your high scores.
So it's a nice little game if you enjoyed it in the past, but if you didn't, it's not really a game I'd recommend. Play one of the more modern versions.
zlionsfan's rating: 6 options out of 10.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Bowlin', bowlin', bowlin'
246.
Read it and weep, beeeyotches. (Thanks to Wayne Veres for his handy little score calculator.)
I figured out a small problem with my delivery. Two, actually. One was that I was swinging my arm out and back instead of hanging it at my side as if it held, well, a bowling ball. The other was that my release point was random.
A couple of changes later, I hit seven of eight strikes and end up a sleeper away from a no-tap 300. Added 97 points to my level (1175 now).
I'd bowl again, but there's a cat on my lap.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Wiilief
So I get home after an evening of playing Big Brain Academy and Mario Party 8, and I see that I don't have my BBA game in my inbox. Actually, I have nothing. Also, my friends didn't have my updated Mii.
I play for a bit and decide to test the connection. Sporadic connectivity, can't shop, can't update the system.
After about 45 minutes of the router equivalent of smacking the TV set, I unplug the Wii and move it up about three feet and out of the nice entertainment center where it sits. No connection problems at all.
I think this was because we were talking last night about how Sony was so stupid and Microsoft couldn't get out of its own way. Nintendo can't make enough Wiis to save themselves, but what else could they do wrong? Everyone loves their games.
Oh yeah. No wired connection and crappy interface to wireless connections.
Thanks for reminding me.
I play for a bit and decide to test the connection. Sporadic connectivity, can't shop, can't update the system.
After about 45 minutes of the router equivalent of smacking the TV set, I unplug the Wii and move it up about three feet and out of the nice entertainment center where it sits. No connection problems at all.
I think this was because we were talking last night about how Sony was so stupid and Microsoft couldn't get out of its own way. Nintendo can't make enough Wiis to save themselves, but what else could they do wrong? Everyone loves their games.
Oh yeah. No wired connection and crappy interface to wireless connections.
Thanks for reminding me.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Cross your paws ...
Well, the surgery went very well. The incision healed fine, the E-collars are off, and the staples are out. There was much washing that first day, when she got to keep the collars off for good (I let her wash the fur areas every now and then, but she had to stay away from the incision).
Her energy was coming back even as the E-collars were on, so she's pretty close to normal now. That's good, considering that she also began chemo on Friday. (This was new to me: unlike in people, where they can ramp it up because you know what's going on, in cats, chemo is more for controlling whatever might be out there. A cat in pain because of cancer and a cat in pain because of chemo are essentially in the same spot.) There isn't anything noticeable right now, but because this turned out to be something a little bit different (pancreatic, and there are other words that go with it that may or may not have been what I posted before), this is to keep down whatever else may be trying to grow. There will be six three-week cycles, alternating between two medicines, with blood draws 10 and 20 days after chemo.
It was pretty quick, maybe just 20 minutes, and thankfully administered by IV and not yours truly. Got her back in the crate, back home, and within minutes, she was eating and pulling at the bandage on her leg. (I felt dumb when, after the hour they say to wait, I went to take it off and there was no bandage on the leg. She'd already removed it herself. No thanks, Dad, already took care of that.)
No real side effects, partly because of the low dosage. The one thing that happens sometimes is that whiskers fall out (their equivalent to our hair, stuff that keeps growing). Not yet, not that I've seen. Also, you're supposed to handle waste carefully, because for the first 72 hours, they can pass active medication. (Fortunately, I already react to cat urine, so I've got gloves just for that purpose.)
Things have gone as well as I could have hoped. The only real change, besides the fur that's slowly growing back, is that now that Calle has her energy back, she's not so keen on hanging out with Josie. Apparently all that closeness before was just that she didn't have the energy to move away. :)
Her energy was coming back even as the E-collars were on, so she's pretty close to normal now. That's good, considering that she also began chemo on Friday. (This was new to me: unlike in people, where they can ramp it up because you know what's going on, in cats, chemo is more for controlling whatever might be out there. A cat in pain because of cancer and a cat in pain because of chemo are essentially in the same spot.) There isn't anything noticeable right now, but because this turned out to be something a little bit different (pancreatic, and there are other words that go with it that may or may not have been what I posted before), this is to keep down whatever else may be trying to grow. There will be six three-week cycles, alternating between two medicines, with blood draws 10 and 20 days after chemo.
It was pretty quick, maybe just 20 minutes, and thankfully administered by IV and not yours truly. Got her back in the crate, back home, and within minutes, she was eating and pulling at the bandage on her leg. (I felt dumb when, after the hour they say to wait, I went to take it off and there was no bandage on the leg. She'd already removed it herself. No thanks, Dad, already took care of that.)
No real side effects, partly because of the low dosage. The one thing that happens sometimes is that whiskers fall out (their equivalent to our hair, stuff that keeps growing). Not yet, not that I've seen. Also, you're supposed to handle waste carefully, because for the first 72 hours, they can pass active medication. (Fortunately, I already react to cat urine, so I've got gloves just for that purpose.)
Things have gone as well as I could have hoped. The only real change, besides the fur that's slowly growing back, is that now that Calle has her energy back, she's not so keen on hanging out with Josie. Apparently all that closeness before was just that she didn't have the energy to move away. :)
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
XBLA review: Missile Command (3/10)
Yawn.
This week's XBLA release is another Digital Eclipse port of an Atari classic. And who wouldn't want to play good old Missile Command?
Well, anyone without a trackball, for starters. Missile Command is slightly less awkward to play with a joystick than Centipede, but both really, really need a trackball to be played well.
Also, I never really liked Missile Command, so it stands to reason that if the port were faithful to the original, I wouldn't like it either, and so I don't.
I will give them credit, though, for porting it well. The Classic mode is basically the old game with joystick controller. (Thankfully, they do use X A B for bases. I've seen ports that used only one button to fire.) For some reason, there's no two-player alternating mode.
Naturally, there's an "Evolved" mode that is supposed to be so much better than the original. Again, nobody looks at these games and says "Man, if only the graphics were updated, this would be a kick-ass game, even today!" Well, actually, they could improve the graphics here. The contrast on some of the levels wasn't so good: you could tell that Atari was using some colors simply because they could.
Well, Evolved does change the colors up, along with "3D" graphics, but the irony is that there are still levels where it's not easy to pick up the "missiles." Sigh ... also, Digital Eclipse really, really wants you to play the Evolved mode. Ten of the twelve achievements are for the Evolved mode at Normal difficulty. Thankfully, they only required stupid "throttle monkey" difficulty for one achievement. (Why bother to give us only two difficulty levels? MAME lets you customize the difficulty like arcade operators could.)
Interestingly, they did change one thing significantly. The bonus multiplier continues to go up beyond 6x: it continues every two waves. This should give you that same kind of artificially-high score that pinball players got from tables in the early '90s, when designers realized that you could add a couple of zeroes to everything and people would like their scores better.
I guess if you really are hankering for a game of Missile Command, this might be nice to have in your collection, but if you weren't the kind of person who'd put a week's lunch money into the game in the '80s, I wouldn't bother with it today.
zlionsfan's rating: 3 cities out of 10.
This week's XBLA release is another Digital Eclipse port of an Atari classic. And who wouldn't want to play good old Missile Command?
Well, anyone without a trackball, for starters. Missile Command is slightly less awkward to play with a joystick than Centipede, but both really, really need a trackball to be played well.
Also, I never really liked Missile Command, so it stands to reason that if the port were faithful to the original, I wouldn't like it either, and so I don't.
I will give them credit, though, for porting it well. The Classic mode is basically the old game with joystick controller. (Thankfully, they do use X A B for bases. I've seen ports that used only one button to fire.) For some reason, there's no two-player alternating mode.
Naturally, there's an "Evolved" mode that is supposed to be so much better than the original. Again, nobody looks at these games and says "Man, if only the graphics were updated, this would be a kick-ass game, even today!" Well, actually, they could improve the graphics here. The contrast on some of the levels wasn't so good: you could tell that Atari was using some colors simply because they could.
Well, Evolved does change the colors up, along with "3D" graphics, but the irony is that there are still levels where it's not easy to pick up the "missiles." Sigh ... also, Digital Eclipse really, really wants you to play the Evolved mode. Ten of the twelve achievements are for the Evolved mode at Normal difficulty. Thankfully, they only required stupid "throttle monkey" difficulty for one achievement. (Why bother to give us only two difficulty levels? MAME lets you customize the difficulty like arcade operators could.)
Interestingly, they did change one thing significantly. The bonus multiplier continues to go up beyond 6x: it continues every two waves. This should give you that same kind of artificially-high score that pinball players got from tables in the early '90s, when designers realized that you could add a couple of zeroes to everything and people would like their scores better.
I guess if you really are hankering for a game of Missile Command, this might be nice to have in your collection, but if you weren't the kind of person who'd put a week's lunch money into the game in the '80s, I wouldn't bother with it today.
zlionsfan's rating: 3 cities out of 10.
Monday, June 25, 2007
360 review: Rayman Raving Rabbids (6/10)
Wow. I forgot to review this for the Wii. Maybe later.
Anyway, this is the Wii hit ported to the 360. It's a fun concept: in story mode, you play minigames to advance and unlock them in score mode, then you go back and play one to four players in score mode, unlocking other things.
The minigames are (mostly) fun, nice little tasks that are somewhat (or a lot) longer than, say, their Mario or Wario counterparts. On the Wii, they're given an added touch with the Wiimote (and occasionally the nunchuk). On the 360, well ... you can use the Live Vision camera, but I wouldn't recommend it except for the achievement.
Because the controls are different, there are a couple of minigames in the 360 version not in the Wii version and vice versa. Also, some of the 360 games (like the dancing ones) are easier to play, but some (like the bunny hunt) are harder.
Why would you not have an option to invert the cursor movement? Every shooter has this, and I mean every one. This makes no sense to me. Deduct one point for stupidity.
Also, the games take quite a while to load, which makes you wonder what's going on when you see their simplicity. Like the Wii version, the 360 version doesn't have a menu option to restart a challenge: you have to quit it, sit through the loading screen, pick it again, sit through the loading screen, click through the menus, and then sit through another (short) loading screen. Bor-ing.
Worst of all, if you "fail" a game by not getting a certain score, you get no credit for it in score mode. None. So then what's the point of giving us a score?
Also, despite the presence of Xbox Live, they insist on making us type in that stupid Web code to check leaderboards and stuff. Um, no. That's so last-generation.
The graphics are nicer, but really, what part of this is about the graphics? It's about getting rabbits to run into cacti over and over again.
Basically, it's like the Wii version, only without the novelty, and missing a couple of things that would have taken advantage of the 360's features. It's not a bad game if you have kids, but honestly, if you have kids, you should have a Wii anyway, so get it for that instead.
zlionsfan's rating: 6 floppy-eared bunnies out of 10.
Anyway, this is the Wii hit ported to the 360. It's a fun concept: in story mode, you play minigames to advance and unlock them in score mode, then you go back and play one to four players in score mode, unlocking other things.
The minigames are (mostly) fun, nice little tasks that are somewhat (or a lot) longer than, say, their Mario or Wario counterparts. On the Wii, they're given an added touch with the Wiimote (and occasionally the nunchuk). On the 360, well ... you can use the Live Vision camera, but I wouldn't recommend it except for the achievement.
Because the controls are different, there are a couple of minigames in the 360 version not in the Wii version and vice versa. Also, some of the 360 games (like the dancing ones) are easier to play, but some (like the bunny hunt) are harder.
Why would you not have an option to invert the cursor movement? Every shooter has this, and I mean every one. This makes no sense to me. Deduct one point for stupidity.
Also, the games take quite a while to load, which makes you wonder what's going on when you see their simplicity. Like the Wii version, the 360 version doesn't have a menu option to restart a challenge: you have to quit it, sit through the loading screen, pick it again, sit through the loading screen, click through the menus, and then sit through another (short) loading screen. Bor-ing.
Worst of all, if you "fail" a game by not getting a certain score, you get no credit for it in score mode. None. So then what's the point of giving us a score?
Also, despite the presence of Xbox Live, they insist on making us type in that stupid Web code to check leaderboards and stuff. Um, no. That's so last-generation.
The graphics are nicer, but really, what part of this is about the graphics? It's about getting rabbits to run into cacti over and over again.
Basically, it's like the Wii version, only without the novelty, and missing a couple of things that would have taken advantage of the 360's features. It's not a bad game if you have kids, but honestly, if you have kids, you should have a Wii anyway, so get it for that instead.
zlionsfan's rating: 6 floppy-eared bunnies out of 10.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Home again, home again
Calle's home now. Everything's going well, except that she's wearing one of those collars that prevents cats from getting at their stitches/staples.
For about an hour, that is. She lay down by the guitars, and as I was typing, I heard a papery kind of "pop" sound, and there was a cat with no collar. Oops. I quickly put it back on, but it makes me wonder if it'll stay on during the day. Hopefully, she'll keep it on during the day today, and then will be less tempted to try to remove it tomorrow.
I have a few meds to give her, two that she gets every 12 hours and one every 8 hours. We'll see how much stronger she is now than before: even when I was putting the collar back on her, she was resisting pretty well. I suspect that in two weeks, once the staples are out, she'll be running around at full speed again.
Josie's not quite sure what to make of this. I took away a quiet cat and brought back a noisy cat, one that rustles every time it moves. She's not so cool with this. She'll probably think better of it when she realizes that she'll get the bed to herself (no jumping, remember).
Once again, good news to this point ...
For about an hour, that is. She lay down by the guitars, and as I was typing, I heard a papery kind of "pop" sound, and there was a cat with no collar. Oops. I quickly put it back on, but it makes me wonder if it'll stay on during the day. Hopefully, she'll keep it on during the day today, and then will be less tempted to try to remove it tomorrow.
I have a few meds to give her, two that she gets every 12 hours and one every 8 hours. We'll see how much stronger she is now than before: even when I was putting the collar back on her, she was resisting pretty well. I suspect that in two weeks, once the staples are out, she'll be running around at full speed again.
Josie's not quite sure what to make of this. I took away a quiet cat and brought back a noisy cat, one that rustles every time it moves. She's not so cool with this. She'll probably think better of it when she realizes that she'll get the bed to herself (no jumping, remember).
Once again, good news to this point ...
Friday, June 22, 2007
Looking good so far ...
For the first time in I don't know how long, I was 30 minutes early to work.
The appointment was very quick. The surgeon checked on Calle, talked a bit about what we would do and what the risks were (he was the fact-dispenser to match the oncologist's hope-dispensation), I left her with an assistant, and that was that. He said they'd call if there were problems prior to surgery (if chest X-rays showed stuff in the lungs or heart cavity), and if not, they'd call after surgery.
It's also been a long time since I wanted the phone not to ring. :)
10:53, right after my 10:30 ends, I get a call on my work phone. (Docs know this stuff - yeah, you say "cell phone, cell phone," but when was the last time your work phone was dead?) Everything's fine so far. She was very good during surgery (naturally), no visible signs of cancer other than the mass itself. They took it out, got her into recovery, and that's all for now. She'll stay over the weekend, and then I'll have a list of instructions on Monday or Tuesday.
There's a possibility that there could be more cancer that is too small to detect, and the oncologist will come up with a post-surgery plan, so there is another phase (short or long, hard to tell at this point), but for now, things seem to be going very, very well.
The appointment was very quick. The surgeon checked on Calle, talked a bit about what we would do and what the risks were (he was the fact-dispenser to match the oncologist's hope-dispensation), I left her with an assistant, and that was that. He said they'd call if there were problems prior to surgery (if chest X-rays showed stuff in the lungs or heart cavity), and if not, they'd call after surgery.
It's also been a long time since I wanted the phone not to ring. :)
10:53, right after my 10:30 ends, I get a call on my work phone. (Docs know this stuff - yeah, you say "cell phone, cell phone," but when was the last time your work phone was dead?) Everything's fine so far. She was very good during surgery (naturally), no visible signs of cancer other than the mass itself. They took it out, got her into recovery, and that's all for now. She'll stay over the weekend, and then I'll have a list of instructions on Monday or Tuesday.
There's a possibility that there could be more cancer that is too small to detect, and the oncologist will come up with a post-surgery plan, so there is another phase (short or long, hard to tell at this point), but for now, things seem to be going very, very well.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Found money
Of course, it's never really found. It just comes from something you forgot.
Anyway, back before I bought my current car, I got rear-ended at a stoplight by a woman in an SUV who was paying attention to something other than, say, the car in front of her. (This is not a surprise. I've been in 15 or so accidents, probably 12 not my fault. Crash magnet.) Anyway, it was one of those smaller things, so I get out, we exchange information, I don't call the police (because it was minor), and we move on.
I get my car fixed, paying the deductible, of course, and I suppose I filled out all that other stuff. Anyway, I got it fixed at Penske Chevrolet. I bought my current car at Penske Honda.
I get an envelope in the mail from Penske today. Hmm, wonder what they want? Probably want me to come in for my 7500-mile checkup. (It's time.) Nope. It's from Penske Chevrolet.
It's my deductible.
Ha ha! I win again! (The last time, it was a lying ... um, can't use that word here. Anyway, it was a woman who ran a stoplight by about five seconds, sideswiped me, and then tried to claim that it was my fault, with her husband happily lying on her behalf. Fortunately, a witness saw the whole thing and came right up and said so - bless her heart - and I got my deductible back on that one too.)
So you see, free money. Of course, I already paid it, so I'm just getting it back, but still ... I have the feeling I will need some extra cash soon.
Anyway, back before I bought my current car, I got rear-ended at a stoplight by a woman in an SUV who was paying attention to something other than, say, the car in front of her. (This is not a surprise. I've been in 15 or so accidents, probably 12 not my fault. Crash magnet.) Anyway, it was one of those smaller things, so I get out, we exchange information, I don't call the police (because it was minor), and we move on.
I get my car fixed, paying the deductible, of course, and I suppose I filled out all that other stuff. Anyway, I got it fixed at Penske Chevrolet. I bought my current car at Penske Honda.
I get an envelope in the mail from Penske today. Hmm, wonder what they want? Probably want me to come in for my 7500-mile checkup. (It's time.) Nope. It's from Penske Chevrolet.
It's my deductible.
Ha ha! I win again! (The last time, it was a lying ... um, can't use that word here. Anyway, it was a woman who ran a stoplight by about five seconds, sideswiped me, and then tried to claim that it was my fault, with her husband happily lying on her behalf. Fortunately, a witness saw the whole thing and came right up and said so - bless her heart - and I got my deductible back on that one too.)
So you see, free money. Of course, I already paid it, so I'm just getting it back, but still ... I have the feeling I will need some extra cash soon.
A New Hope
Now I think I should have paid more attention when my relatives were going through this stuff. (I don't think any of them had intestinal cancer, though.)
We met with the oncologist Friday. Calle liked this office better: they have shag carpeting on the exam tables. In fact, she didn't want to go back in the carrier at first. He agreed that there was a mass, thought it might be intestinal, and wanted to get some cells from it. They kept her for the afternoon, took some samples and an ultrasound, and sent off the samples for analysis.
The ultrasound showed that the mass was in the intestinal area, but it's still not certain. We got results today, and it looks like it's intestinal adenocarcinoma. (Almost at the bottom of the page.)
So Calle has an appointment tomorrow morning. The surgeon is going to consult with us, examine her briefly, and then do a chest X-ray just to make sure it's not spread to the chest cavity. If it hasn't, then they'll put her under the knife. She'll probably be home Monday.
All things considered, there is definitely cause for optimism. I am hoping for the best.
We met with the oncologist Friday. Calle liked this office better: they have shag carpeting on the exam tables. In fact, she didn't want to go back in the carrier at first. He agreed that there was a mass, thought it might be intestinal, and wanted to get some cells from it. They kept her for the afternoon, took some samples and an ultrasound, and sent off the samples for analysis.
The ultrasound showed that the mass was in the intestinal area, but it's still not certain. We got results today, and it looks like it's intestinal adenocarcinoma. (Almost at the bottom of the page.)
So Calle has an appointment tomorrow morning. The surgeon is going to consult with us, examine her briefly, and then do a chest X-ray just to make sure it's not spread to the chest cavity. If it hasn't, then they'll put her under the knife. She'll probably be home Monday.
All things considered, there is definitely cause for optimism. I am hoping for the best.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
The Best Cat Ever
Except, of course, for your own. (With apologies to Cleveland Amory, from whom I shamelessly stole the line. There is, however, an old saw that suggests that the first time one steals a line, it's quoted directly; the second time, it's quoted indirectly; the third time, it's delivered as if one's own. If such is the case, I shall quote two more times so that we may proceed.)
Calle has cancer.
Someone with a greater insistence for accuracy might say that we think she has cancer, that it could be something else, that the outcome may still be in doubt, or any of the other things with which people in this situation usually comfort themselves. Although I've never been through this with a cat of my own (or more accurate, in my own house, because cats are never really one's own), I have been through it with people, and in such cases, it is always best to accept the truth internally and hope for the best externally.
We have an appointment with an oncologist next Friday. What we will discover is that the vet is correct, and that it is relatively advanced, and that at this point, we should allow Calle the feline equivalent of tidying up her affairs. (I shall not ask her to whom she wills her possessions. I expect she would rather see them thrown away than given to that cat, so we shall not ask, and Josie will have use of the ones she likes. Or, perhaps, she will not like any of them at all.)
On May 1 (or perhaps April 30), for no apparent reason, I suddenly realized that Calle was older than I'd thought. (Of course, I really hadn't thought much about it.) I went back through mentally – almost five years in the house, some time in the apartment, however long she'd lived with Kristen – and came up with 8 or so. I then checked my leases (oh yes, I had not cleaned them up yet) and found five years' worth. So she's 12 or 13, something like that. Not so bad, but not a youngish cat. A middle-aged cat. (This was a sudden thought, that's all.)
I visit college friends in the spring/summer, usually over Memorial Day weekend. When I returned, it seemed that the cats had been on a hunger strike. Purina had introduced a new flavor of Purina One, and since flavor A was so good, perhaps flavor B also would be good. Alas, it was not, so flavor A made its return.
Except that it really didn't. For some reason, not a lot of food was being eaten, and there was more meowing. Why? Of course, it's hard to tell. However, challenges had come and gone, and there were no other signs that I could see, so this too might pass.
There was also more sleeping (how can you tell? Well, it's hard – more a feeling than anything else). But it didn't really seem to be that big of a deal.
Then, Sunday night, I think, I was in the kitchen for some reason, and I saw that the food bowls were fairly full, and that, come to think of it, I hadn't filled them for a while. (Josie does not eat much. She's a small cat.) For no reason, I picked a kibble out of the bowl and tossed it toward Calle, who was by the refrigerator. She ate it awkwardly but greedily. Another kibble, same result.
Hmm. Not so good. Probably some tooth thing that I missed, or perhaps sores (she's allergic to something, and every now and then it appears; we take her in, get her a steroid shot, and it goes away). So I toss another one, and she kind of nibbles at it, but doesn't eat it.
I have treats in the cupboard. They're softer. I get a couple out and put them down. Gone in a flash. Not a good sign at all. So I feed her some treats, slowly, so as not to upset her stomach. (It didn't work, by the way.)
Well, she hasn't been eating, so we'll take her in to see the vet. Out of curiosity, I decide to weigh her. You know, additivity: weigh myself, weigh me and the cat, subtract me.
I step on the scale. 189. (Thankfully, it was evening and I was fairly well dressed. I still have weight to lose, but this is not my story.)
I pick up cat and step on the scale. 198.
198.
Nine pounds. Calle's last recorded weight was 12 pounds. I know this like you know when your child was last sick enough to see the doctor. You do not need to be good at math to see a problem here.
Then, when I step off the scale, Calle suddenly lunges out of my hands, lands awkwardly, and runs off. Also not good signs. She landed much like I would land if I jumped down from a height of four feet or so, not at all catlike. Also, for some reason, when I hold a cat (always left hand under the front legs), my right hand doesn't support the legs, but rather lifts the cat to nestle in the crook of my elbow, perhaps supporting the cat's midsection.
So I get a little more food into Calle and resolve to call the vet tomorrow morning.
Happily, they have an afternoon appointment. (Strangely, I work about 5 minutes from the vet, but 25-30 from home, so I have a 60-minute round trip to get the cat.) Cleverly, I close the bedroom door: Calle predictably makes a break when she sees me home during the day, realizes her best hiding places are unavailable, turns and jogs back into the living room, only to remember it looks roughly like a sports bar on a Wednesday afternoon. I pick her up, put her into the crate (thanks to Paul for suggesting the top-of-the-crate-removal trick - record time for cat insertion), and off we go.
There's not much meowing in the car or at the vet.
They can see us right away. I'm running about 3 minutes late. Not bad for a 60-minute trip with cat retrieval included.
Naturally, the first thing we do is weigh the cat. (You know the drill.)
7 pounds.
Not 7.9 pounds, or even 7.4 pounds.
7 pounds.
I am an intelligent man, and I have seen bad things before. I do not know much about cats other than as a faithful companion, but I know enough to recognize that when a cat loses almost 50% of its body weight in any period of time, something is wrong, and it is not a tooth problem.
The vet tech and I trade pleasantries and hedge upward: even though I know, and she must know (because she's looking at Calle's chart, because Calle has been there for every vet trip since I took care of her), we decide her last measured weight was 11 pounds, even though it's not.
So the vet comes in and is given this news, and the symptoms (not eating much, peeing less often, pooping less often, no visible diarrhea, no other visible symptoms), and of course he does the correct vet thing and checks into it himself, even though he suspects that he will have to explain something rather soon.
Blood tests to come. They shave a patch of her fur (bless her heart, she still has thick fur, even if it's short) and draw blood (I look away). Temperature, normal. He examines her. Head, no problems. Belly.
"I don't like that." Something in the abdomen. X-rays to come.
So it can be a number of things: you know, or possibly a kidney problem, or something else. The X-rays may or may not tell us.
The X-rays come back. It is not a kidney problem, not unless your kidneys hide behind your ribcage. Her kidneys are clearly not where this mass is, nor is her spleen there. Where it is is where no mass has any business being in a healthy cat.
So. It looks like intestinal lymphoma. If you don't know what that is, it is not difficult to explain. Like in humans, the lymphatic system in cats is pretty much everywhere: therefore, if you have cancer in your lymphatic system, it did not just knock on your door and offer to sell you a nice magazine subscription. It has made itself at home, and has invited some of its friends, and it has eaten your favorite ice cream and forgotten to set the DVR for MythBusters.
Of course, it is not always like that. There are degrees of malignancy in cats as there are in humans, but a low-grade tumor does not cause a cat to lose five pounds. Not this cat, the one who would eat Pop-Tart pieces, or lettuce, or, well, anything not too spicy that happened to fall on the floor, or on a napkin, or onto your plate, even if it hadn't fallen quite yet, but could have if she weren't watching it so closely for you.
To the vet's credit (and I expected no less from him; he has always done well by my cats and has always told me exactly what's going on), there was no hedging. I asked a couple of questions and he confirmed them.
So we will see the oncologist next Friday, and he will tell me that it is a high-grade tumor, and we will discuss options to improve her quality of living, and I will probably thank him for all of his help, and go back to the vet, and schedule Calle for some periodic steroid shots (this seems to help with the symptoms), every week or two, or something like that, and then, you know, it will be time.
Calle has been the best cat I have ever had, in nearly four decades of cat companionship, and I have treasured every moment we have shared together. I could not ask for anything more than for her last days to be as good for her as the other days have been for me.
Calle has cancer.
Someone with a greater insistence for accuracy might say that we think she has cancer, that it could be something else, that the outcome may still be in doubt, or any of the other things with which people in this situation usually comfort themselves. Although I've never been through this with a cat of my own (or more accurate, in my own house, because cats are never really one's own), I have been through it with people, and in such cases, it is always best to accept the truth internally and hope for the best externally.
We have an appointment with an oncologist next Friday. What we will discover is that the vet is correct, and that it is relatively advanced, and that at this point, we should allow Calle the feline equivalent of tidying up her affairs. (I shall not ask her to whom she wills her possessions. I expect she would rather see them thrown away than given to that cat, so we shall not ask, and Josie will have use of the ones she likes. Or, perhaps, she will not like any of them at all.)
On May 1 (or perhaps April 30), for no apparent reason, I suddenly realized that Calle was older than I'd thought. (Of course, I really hadn't thought much about it.) I went back through mentally – almost five years in the house, some time in the apartment, however long she'd lived with Kristen – and came up with 8 or so. I then checked my leases (oh yes, I had not cleaned them up yet) and found five years' worth. So she's 12 or 13, something like that. Not so bad, but not a youngish cat. A middle-aged cat. (This was a sudden thought, that's all.)
I visit college friends in the spring/summer, usually over Memorial Day weekend. When I returned, it seemed that the cats had been on a hunger strike. Purina had introduced a new flavor of Purina One, and since flavor A was so good, perhaps flavor B also would be good. Alas, it was not, so flavor A made its return.
Except that it really didn't. For some reason, not a lot of food was being eaten, and there was more meowing. Why? Of course, it's hard to tell. However, challenges had come and gone, and there were no other signs that I could see, so this too might pass.
There was also more sleeping (how can you tell? Well, it's hard – more a feeling than anything else). But it didn't really seem to be that big of a deal.
Then, Sunday night, I think, I was in the kitchen for some reason, and I saw that the food bowls were fairly full, and that, come to think of it, I hadn't filled them for a while. (Josie does not eat much. She's a small cat.) For no reason, I picked a kibble out of the bowl and tossed it toward Calle, who was by the refrigerator. She ate it awkwardly but greedily. Another kibble, same result.
Hmm. Not so good. Probably some tooth thing that I missed, or perhaps sores (she's allergic to something, and every now and then it appears; we take her in, get her a steroid shot, and it goes away). So I toss another one, and she kind of nibbles at it, but doesn't eat it.
I have treats in the cupboard. They're softer. I get a couple out and put them down. Gone in a flash. Not a good sign at all. So I feed her some treats, slowly, so as not to upset her stomach. (It didn't work, by the way.)
Well, she hasn't been eating, so we'll take her in to see the vet. Out of curiosity, I decide to weigh her. You know, additivity: weigh myself, weigh me and the cat, subtract me.
I step on the scale. 189. (Thankfully, it was evening and I was fairly well dressed. I still have weight to lose, but this is not my story.)
I pick up cat and step on the scale. 198.
198.
Nine pounds. Calle's last recorded weight was 12 pounds. I know this like you know when your child was last sick enough to see the doctor. You do not need to be good at math to see a problem here.
Then, when I step off the scale, Calle suddenly lunges out of my hands, lands awkwardly, and runs off. Also not good signs. She landed much like I would land if I jumped down from a height of four feet or so, not at all catlike. Also, for some reason, when I hold a cat (always left hand under the front legs), my right hand doesn't support the legs, but rather lifts the cat to nestle in the crook of my elbow, perhaps supporting the cat's midsection.
So I get a little more food into Calle and resolve to call the vet tomorrow morning.
Happily, they have an afternoon appointment. (Strangely, I work about 5 minutes from the vet, but 25-30 from home, so I have a 60-minute round trip to get the cat.) Cleverly, I close the bedroom door: Calle predictably makes a break when she sees me home during the day, realizes her best hiding places are unavailable, turns and jogs back into the living room, only to remember it looks roughly like a sports bar on a Wednesday afternoon. I pick her up, put her into the crate (thanks to Paul for suggesting the top-of-the-crate-removal trick - record time for cat insertion), and off we go.
There's not much meowing in the car or at the vet.
They can see us right away. I'm running about 3 minutes late. Not bad for a 60-minute trip with cat retrieval included.
Naturally, the first thing we do is weigh the cat. (You know the drill.)
7 pounds.
Not 7.9 pounds, or even 7.4 pounds.
7 pounds.
I am an intelligent man, and I have seen bad things before. I do not know much about cats other than as a faithful companion, but I know enough to recognize that when a cat loses almost 50% of its body weight in any period of time, something is wrong, and it is not a tooth problem.
The vet tech and I trade pleasantries and hedge upward: even though I know, and she must know (because she's looking at Calle's chart, because Calle has been there for every vet trip since I took care of her), we decide her last measured weight was 11 pounds, even though it's not.
So the vet comes in and is given this news, and the symptoms (not eating much, peeing less often, pooping less often, no visible diarrhea, no other visible symptoms), and of course he does the correct vet thing and checks into it himself, even though he suspects that he will have to explain something rather soon.
Blood tests to come. They shave a patch of her fur (bless her heart, she still has thick fur, even if it's short) and draw blood (I look away). Temperature, normal. He examines her. Head, no problems. Belly.
"I don't like that." Something in the abdomen. X-rays to come.
So it can be a number of things: you know, or possibly a kidney problem, or something else. The X-rays may or may not tell us.
The X-rays come back. It is not a kidney problem, not unless your kidneys hide behind your ribcage. Her kidneys are clearly not where this mass is, nor is her spleen there. Where it is is where no mass has any business being in a healthy cat.
So. It looks like intestinal lymphoma. If you don't know what that is, it is not difficult to explain. Like in humans, the lymphatic system in cats is pretty much everywhere: therefore, if you have cancer in your lymphatic system, it did not just knock on your door and offer to sell you a nice magazine subscription. It has made itself at home, and has invited some of its friends, and it has eaten your favorite ice cream and forgotten to set the DVR for MythBusters.
Of course, it is not always like that. There are degrees of malignancy in cats as there are in humans, but a low-grade tumor does not cause a cat to lose five pounds. Not this cat, the one who would eat Pop-Tart pieces, or lettuce, or, well, anything not too spicy that happened to fall on the floor, or on a napkin, or onto your plate, even if it hadn't fallen quite yet, but could have if she weren't watching it so closely for you.
To the vet's credit (and I expected no less from him; he has always done well by my cats and has always told me exactly what's going on), there was no hedging. I asked a couple of questions and he confirmed them.
So we will see the oncologist next Friday, and he will tell me that it is a high-grade tumor, and we will discuss options to improve her quality of living, and I will probably thank him for all of his help, and go back to the vet, and schedule Calle for some periodic steroid shots (this seems to help with the symptoms), every week or two, or something like that, and then, you know, it will be time.
Calle has been the best cat I have ever had, in nearly four decades of cat companionship, and I have treasured every moment we have shared together. I could not ask for anything more than for her last days to be as good for her as the other days have been for me.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
XBLA review: Aegis Wing (4/10)
Look, Microsoft's giving away something free! That must mean it sucks, right?
Well ... Texas Hold 'Em was tolerable, and it was free for a while. In much the same way, Aegis Wing is tolerable.
Think of it as a poor man's Gradius: a side-scroller where you can collect various power-ups and defeat bosses at the end of some of the stages. But ...
So yeah, it's a really poor man's Gradius. It's all right to play, but really, that's about it. I really don't have the desire to sit through more than one game at a time. Basically, you hold down the primary fire button the entire game. Secondary weapons come in handy from time to time, but that's about it. (Of course, later in the game, if you don't have one, you're screwed, and naturally they don't show up when you need them.)
In multiplayer, power-ups have more value if more people are playing (kind of like treasures in Gauntlet), and you can join ships together so that everyone can share powers (one person flies and the others become turrets). Of course, the single-player mode isn't that exciting, so I'm not really sure I can talk my friends into trying multiplayer.
For free, it's a decent game – it's less likely you'll complain about what it doesn't have. Nice work, interns. Next time, give us a full game.
zlionsfan's rating: 4 wings out of 10.
Well ... Texas Hold 'Em was tolerable, and it was free for a while. In much the same way, Aegis Wing is tolerable.
Think of it as a poor man's Gradius: a side-scroller where you can collect various power-ups and defeat bosses at the end of some of the stages. But ...
- You can't customize your ship.
- You can't build up the power-ups: each has only one level. (in single-player, that is)
- You can't even have more than one at once.
- You start each wave with four lives and no power-ups. (I don't know what happens if you complete a level without dying, I think.)
- The shield doesn't protect you from collisions.
- Not every level ends with a boss.
So yeah, it's a really poor man's Gradius. It's all right to play, but really, that's about it. I really don't have the desire to sit through more than one game at a time. Basically, you hold down the primary fire button the entire game. Secondary weapons come in handy from time to time, but that's about it. (Of course, later in the game, if you don't have one, you're screwed, and naturally they don't show up when you need them.)
In multiplayer, power-ups have more value if more people are playing (kind of like treasures in Gauntlet), and you can join ships together so that everyone can share powers (one person flies and the others become turrets). Of course, the single-player mode isn't that exciting, so I'm not really sure I can talk my friends into trying multiplayer.
For free, it's a decent game – it's less likely you'll complain about what it doesn't have. Nice work, interns. Next time, give us a full game.
zlionsfan's rating: 4 wings out of 10.
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