Strange Games of 00's Vol. 2

Part 2 of my "Games I shouldn't have liked...but did of the last ten years" list.

2002: Car Battler Joe (GBA)
Terrible graphics, stupid title, and a dumb story usually make for an awful game, but that isn't the case with "Car Battler Joe." You play Joe, a 16 year old boy looking for adventure, as he begins his career as a car battler. You save up money to buy new parts for your battle dune buggy. The game has you run errands and battle other car battlers to earn money. The thing that drew me to this game was the customization of the cars. You bought and equipped new weapons, engines, and armor and that's the kind of stuff I love. I really don't recall any story or any of the characters, just customized the crap out of my car and battling people.

2003: Downhill Domination (Ps2)
Before "Downhill Domination" I had no idea that the whole world of downhill mountain biking existed. "Downhill Domination" is an extreme sports racing game that sends you barreling down mountains atop a mountain bike. I don't know how I stumbled upon this game but when it wound up in my hands I couldn't put it down. How could a premise that I had no interest in be so freaking fun? The game shows speed better than almost any game I've ever played, half the time you are playing you almost feel like you can't even do anything but keep pedaling and hope for the best. If you play your cards right while your are riding you can find water bottles, rocks, and stick to hurl at your competitors. The only problem with the game? None of my friends ever wanted to play with me.

Will Arnett, Spike Jonze in David Cross's Pilot

Thanks to the UK's Channel 4 the internet has been treated with a glimpse of the pilot for David Cross's "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret." I think the show looks great, but I'll let you judge for yourself.

The clip contains A LOT of foul language. Just a heads up.

Strange Games of 00's Vol. 1

As this strangely named decade (OO's?) comes to an end people are starting to look back at all the greatness that has happened within it. Me? I'd rather think about all the video games that I shouldn't have liked...but did. Here are the first two games that I had almost inexplicable love for.

2000: The Grinch (Dreamcast)
Around the age of 12 Christmas starts to loose some of it's magic as was the case during my 12th Christmas. You've either been told the truth about the holiday or you've used your pre-pubescent detective skills to figure it all out and it just isn't the same anymore. That is unless you pop in Konami's 2000 hit "The Grinch" into your Dreamcast. The game itself was pretty terrible. If I remember correctly you where collecting various Christmas items (candy canes, gifts, and ornaments to name a few) that where strewn throughout the magical land of Whoville. I think it was the setting that really made me love playing this game. If actually sort of felt like being in one of Dr. Seuss's worlds. The colors where bright, the graphics looked good for the time and the sound and music where incredible. The game stretched out some of the magic of Christmas just a little bit longer.

2001: The Bouncer (Ps2)
Maaan oh maaan is "The Bouncer" bad. Sometimes how much fun you have playing a video games is based more on who you are playing with rather than the actual quality of what you are playing. The best example of this is Square's "The Bouncer." Back in 01 my bestfriend Ross had a Playstation 2, which at the time was THE coolest thing you could have. So I was regularly over at his house playing the crap out of it with him and for some reason we always wanted to play "The Bouncer." The game puts in the shoes of, you guessed it, a bouncer who has to fight his way through hordes of generic bad dudes in an attempt to save the world from some kind of generic evil bad guy. It was nothing more the mediocre but we had such a good time playing it that we'll never really forget it.

Professor Layton a legend?

I was just on Amazon's Nintendo DS page looking around to see if there was any new games and part of there advertising was an option to pick your favorite legendary Nintendo character and it would show you all of their games. I just can't help but feel like one of these characters doesn't belong, and you probably know which one as he's only been in TWO games. Not only that but lets be honest NO ONE knows who is. (The answer is Professor Layton)

Top 5: Steven Karp

Last time I posted about my top 5 T.V. characters I mentioned how watching Futurama made me feel better about being away from home my freshmen year, that Christmas Undeclared sort of did the opposite. It made me miss the experience of feeling alone and completely starting over at the beginning of freshmen year.

Undeclared, created by Judd Apatow, is the story of a dorky high school student, Steven Karp played by Jay Baruchel, and his glorious transformation as he starts his freshmen year at the University of North Eastern California. The show didn't truly represent college life but it did an incredible job of capturing the strange, uncomfortable feelings that accompany starting life in at a new school.

I, like Steven Karp, was pretty nerdy in High School. It was never an issue. I was never teased for it. In fact I had a lot of friends and people, for the most part, liked me. The same couldn't be said for Karp. The show never went into too much detail but it is maid evident that High School wasn't a good experience for the guy and college is his chance to become a new man.

He's awkward. He's lame. He tries to hard. He is just like we all where when we were freshman and for that I love him.

Undeclared was canceled after one season. Maybe it was for the better. Freshman year only lasts a year.

Love/Hate: Playing Modern Warfare 2 Online

Love: Playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. I sunk more time into Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's multiplayer mode than I'd like to really think about. The game was balanced, fun, and rewarding. So rewarding in fact that it'd be easy to play for hours without even realizing it. Modern Warfare 2 has all of that and more, much much more. The new game has more weapon options, better levels, more modes of play, and tons of stuff to unlock and customize. I've already sunk around 15 hours into the online play and I have no urge to stop.

Hate: Playing with people on Xbox Live. I've been playing Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360, which means my only option online is Xbox Live. Unfortunately the Live community isn't the most pleasant to play with. Every time I enter a game I feel like at least a third of my fellow players are going to be jerks, and usually I'm correct. Never before in my life have I seen a group of people so full of themselves and over involved with their own personal success. People are constantly complaining, cursing, and yelling at and about other players. And there is usually no shortage of racial slurs being thrown around. It's a shame such a fun experience can be ruined by a few bad people

Waterworld: Day 5

This post is part of an ongoing project where I attempt to watch all of Waterworld in 5 minute chunks.

Now we see the village during the evening. Someone is in a cage...i think it is cost...yep it's Costner. The wrestler is scooting by on a boat. Maaaan he is UGLY. Poor Costner looks really sad.

The Camera cuts to the little girl with cornrows. She is drawing Costner's cage with charcoal. CREEPY OLD DUDE RUBBING HER BACK. I am not comfortable right now. The mom walked up and seems OK with the weird man touching her child. The mom/bartender/shop keep kinda looks like Kathrine Heigel.

Now someone is pointing a flash light at Mr. Costner's webbed feet. The creepy old man is the one with the flashlight. He is still very very creepy. And he is very excited about Costner's gills. He wants to learn about Costner. The old man has got a propeller on his hat. Costner keeps rocking the cage. He's not in the best of moods. The two are making some kind of deal.

Not gonna lie, the movie is getting pretty boring. It had kinda been picking up some steam but now it's pretty much lost me. Costner keeps shaking the cage. Now we see the sun start to rise. Some guys are riding Jet-Skis away from the beautiful sun rise. It now looks like everyone is going to some kind of court case. Yeah, it is a court case. Costner was just sentenced to be "recycled."