i may just start calling it "that which must not be named," not because it's evil or sucks, but because i feel dumb saying it. in case you are unaware, nintendo has officially changed the name of its new console, the revolution, to "wii" (pronounced "we").
nintendo gives numerous justifications, but i'm not biting. i can't stand the way the name looks or sounds (it sounds dumb, frankly). it's also one of the most talked about subjects in the video game world right now, with most people taking the negative stance. i've gathered some links via del.icio.us (another dumb name i don't like saying) regarding the controversy.
first, "Wii has fans asking Why" is an article about why the name change is bad, from a marketing stance and otherwise.
second, "In Defense of Wii" is an article about why this name could be good for the system and nintendo.
finally, just for fun, "Wii Are Family: The 10 Weirdest Game Console Names" is a listing that already includes the Wii as one of the 10 weirdest console names, though it's lower on the list than you think.
guess that'll be it for now. more daily link postings will come before i write here again. out.
you may have noticed some links that have been posted the last few days. that's me testing out a daily link poster from del.icio.us. i've been using the service quite heavily since i discovered its value. i've also been trying out bloglines. the short description of it is basically a web-based rss aggregator. up until now, i used stand-alone feed readers (especially the one named, coincidentally, feedreader). since katrina, i haven't been at my work pc, so i'm stuck with web-based mail and bloglines, but i do have to admit that bloglines is a nice service.
want to see what i currently have it reading? check here.
how about my del.icio.us archive? check here.
i do have other stuff to type about, but not tonight. look for silent hill, ishmael, shaping things, and other stuff in the future (not so distant, too, i hope).
i've been keeping up with kevin smith's blog, silent bob speaks, for a little while now and i wanted to point as many people to it as possible. you see, he's been retelling his escapades in trying to get "jay," aka jason mewes, sober from all sorts of chemicals.
i never realized it was as bad as he accounts and i don't think anyone could unless (a) they've gone through it before, or (b) they know jason mewes and kevin smith. i have neither (a) nor (b), so i'm merely a spectator.
i've been a pretty big fan of smith's movies for a while and my respect for him is pretty high, being that he writes movies that tickle my fancy, is a huge comic book fan, and even wrote some kickass comics (the green arrow run was especially great). after reading this account (is it still a story if it's totally true? ...i guess so), i have even more respect for him (and mewes, too, for getting clean).
kevin smith is an excellent human being. he bent over backwards and shook hands with the devil on numerous occasions to help get his friend clean. what he's done for mewes is the textbook definition of friendship all the way. the crazy thing is that because of his style of writing and honesty in writing, it's such a personal thing that i would love to call him up and tell him how awesome he is and that it's like i know him, but i'd be like that psycho stalker guy and probably have a restraining order put out against me or something like that. his stuff is just that personal, it's like he's sitting there talking to you.
anyway, i wanted to archive the links once it was completely done and post about it so others could share the wealth. i thought this was originally supposed to go in 4 parts, but it kept going and i kept reading, so here are all the links (they all open in separate windows, too, so be aware):
so that's it. enjoy it. out.
i saw this via penny-arcade and couldn't hold in the good news. gamespot has an article about redoctane bringing a sequel for guitar hero to us.
no song list yet, but the number i've seen is 55 tracks and a new co-op mode where, instead of being an "anything you can do, i can do better" method of two-player action, each player can split duties and one can play lead guitar while the other can play rhythm (or bass, as it seems).
it's going to be compatible with the original guitar controller, but i'm interested to see if they have a version two controller coming as well. also, there's going to be a version at e3, so that's even better. i can't wait to see the song list. i reposted this from gamesarefun, but i don't care. out.
the last two episodes of south park have had me quite interested, especially the last one, "Cartoon Wars, part 2." a little back story first, but i'm not going to detail every little thing...go watch the episode for all of that.
anyway, there's a big uproar in south park because the show family guy is going to show Mohammed in one of their episodes. everyone freaks out and is relieved when they find out that fox censored the show at the last minute. an announcement is then made that they have a new episode coming that's going to show Mohammed again, and this time it won't be censored. cartman's pissed because he hates family guy, so he goes to fox studios to try and pull the newest Mohammed episode. his thinking is that once one episode is pulled, more can be pulled and the show will eventually go off the air. kyle wants to stop cartman for 2 reasons: (1) he likes family guy and doesn't want to see it go off the air and (2) he thinks it goes against freedom of speech if it does get pulled. kyle wins out in the end and the episode goes on as planned. south park shows the family guy episode and, right before Mohammed is seen on screen, the screen goes black and a message from comedy central comes up saying they refuse to show Mohammed on their network.
this was where my interest came in...was that message part of the episode or did comedy central censor south park. turns out that it's the latter (yahoo news).
quite shitty of comedy central, especially since that entire episode and its prequel were basically calling out comedy central to do the right thing and stand up for free speech. another thing they seem to have forgotten is that Mohammed was shown on there before, more than once, in the south park episode "super best friends." that episode had various deities, including Mohammed, acting as a sort of religious justice league.
tsk tsk comedy central. my respect for south park grows while my respect for you drops. after pulling the scientology episode from last season and this, you've fallen pretty far away from your previous status. quit bending over for blowhards.
if i could do without, i'd stop watching, but you do have the daily show, colbert report, and south park that i have to watch.
by way of del.icio.us and gamesarefun, some information about red steel, a game for the nintendo revolution, has come out...the first of such, i believe. this game is being developed by ubisoft and follows the encounters of a yakuza hitman (i think that's the gist).
anyway, your character can wield a katana and pistol, both being controlled by the revolution controller (remote). in the article there's a screenshot montage with an image of the player in the corners, showing how holding the remote tranfers to the weapons in the games.
my impressions are that the game looks amazing for one thing, and it appears that the controller handling is pretty seamless, but that can't really be known until gameplay footage is shown. either way, i'm hoping this is only the surface of what's to come.
in between the last posting and now, i've had time to try out Flickr and del.icio.us. the latter more than the former, i've taken an idea from warren ellis: instead of saving links for social purposes (i.e. sending them to friends and family, making a point for others to be able to see what you've linked), i'm just using it for personal research and posterity. my memory can be fickle and i may have read something that i want to quote elsewhere; since it wasn't something significant, it wasn't bookmarked. i'll be without normally, but using del.icio.us as a repository lets me link many things and categorize them. i can post links while i'm and work and access them from home. i'm enjoying it, to say the least. just for laughs, i'm posting the tag roll from my page. see what i like to read about. here's my link archive.