The Beginning of BudEuro

This is a blog with "Beer" in the title, so I feel fully in the right to say something about the InBev purchase of Anheuser Busch. The first question I have is: Will Americans care?

Let's look at at a couple of interesting factoids first. Anheuser cut 1,800 jobs in the past couple months to look like a nicely dressed higher profit whore for InBev. That's right, I said "Whore." It was reported in todays USA Today (don't tell anyone I read it) that some of the higher ups where nervous about the possibility of Barrack Obama becoming president and imposing a larger capital gains tax so the largest holders of shares pushed the sale. InBev says they will keep American breweries open, even entertaining the possibility of putting corporate offices in the US. Ugh. Maybe this stuff is true. Maybe not. Whatever the case our country has lost a little bit of her cheap beer loving soul. I don't particularly like Bud, Bud light or God forbid Natty Light. But damn it all to that hell spawn... next time I order a cheap beer with friends after work it's going to be Miller Lite.

So with that I have a message for InBev... you think the North American Budweiser market is something you can count on. In fact saying "hey, we've got America locked dooowwwn, we can expand on the Asian market, we've cut costs in China just by absorbing competitive breweries into one." Don't overlook this... I know already that in the Heartland of the United States of America (there is even a Anheuser Brewery less then 10 miles from me. A fucking American created the equipment that made this company what it is over at Jeffrey Manufacturing, not a European, not a German, and not a flippin' Belgian) have taken notice of what has just happened... folks that can't even read... it is just as easy for the lowest of the low to the creme de la creme to say Miller Lite instead of Bud Light.

How's that deal looking for August Busch IV a few years down the road? Thank you for selling your soul, you've made everyone's choice easier at every one of the thousands of corner dives that much simpler.

I don't think I'm alone on this... but next time I see a Bud commercial during the Super Bowl (sometimes embarrassingly) touting American culture I think I'm going to puke, nothing like a Belgian/Brazilian corporation shoving that crap down my throat. Good luck in the rest of the world, you just lost America.

Man! I'm worked up.

***writers note: the pic above is a slat conveyor, made by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio, is moving beer bottles and cases at a brewery, 1908. The conveyor foot shaft and the screw shaft slack take up mechanism are visible.***

Civilization Fairey

Where do you even begin with a Sid Meier game? The guy is a legend in my book.

Civ Rev is a neat and tidy package to bigger brother PC Civ game(s). After playing my first "board" I was a bit down on it. It was jarringly quick, I ended up warring with just about everyone and I was stuck not really expanding my empire or creating many wonders. I couldn't even fall back on just taking a rival city and burning it to the ground and I couldn't destroy roads to weaken the enemy. I was stuck just pounding away at their city using brute force. Maps are tiny (and you can't choose the size of them or terrain) and about an hour in I was whoring myself out giving away technology and gold just to keep the other nations off my back. Eventually, in the modern age my nation started kicking in to high gear all the sudden (which, to a PC Civ play nothing is "all the sudden") and I started a royal beat down on my enemies. War, war, war... Me verses the rest of the world because no one else warred unless it was against me. That's all it seemed to be and that's all I've read in the reviews as well.

However.

A few boards later I discovered that this isn't the case. You can't avoid bumping into two or three other nations with in the first fifteen minutes and while you will eventually, you don't have to war. You just have to play THIS version of the game not try and make it the PC version. Every round you have to press the flesh and stay on top of the peacemaking. Avoid extending too far but find sweet spots. It'll seem like cities are right on top of each other, but Civ Rev is a different game. Playing the game this way may make it sound like it is tedious but it's not. Menus are lighting fast and the decisions are simple which leaves the game series hallmark of "just one more turn" firmly in place. It's just that that one more turn won't be when the sun is coming up the next morning. Even playing the game this way clocks it in at under three or four hours. And, btw, you can destroy cities late in the game if you so choose.

Soooo... now I'm going to attempt and follow my Review Structure I put together a couple weeks ago. Here goes:

- STORY: 5:
Like Civ games in the past, it is what you make it. I happen to enjoy this take and the spirit is there.

- OBJECTIVES: 5:
Plenty to do of course, again... Civ game

- IN GAME DESIGN: 4:
Good work done here. Nicely done considering it's PC heritage. Menus and pop ins are where they should be (albeit in your face). I've grown to like it. Looks sleek and clean in HD.

- ARTWORK: 3:
I'm torn here. Animations are cute and fluid. But battles are herky jerky. Cities look ok. Nothing is that impressive nor is does anything look awful. Graphics are not the sort of thing I really get hung up on unless they just suck.

- AUDIO: 4:
Well done. Classy. "Sims" chatter can get old, but you can turn it off. The music choices in the game are top notch and sound great when piped though my stereo. Sometimes, with the sound effects, you get an obscenely loud river flow or an army pounding its shield but it is forgivable. For the most part the audio is subtle but effective.

- GAMEPLAY: 5:
Again, this is a console version of Civilization. Play it as such and it will be enjoyed.

- EMOTIONAL IMPACT: 3:
No looking at the clock and discovering it is 4 AM here. Nor do I get really, really irritated when I loose a city or my first warrior army (sob).

- LONGEVITY: 4:
Many challenges to be found. I will be playing this one right up till Fable 2 comes out and I can see myself picking it up here and there down the road. Also, multiplayer is to be found here.

- HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: 4:
This is an optimistic 4! Because the game works and I think it will send a message to the industry that there is a market for this type of game; hopefully pushing more complex and deeper games to consoles. I could be wrong though.

- X FACTOR: 4:
Damn it. It's fun and I'm extremely happy it exists. Would you rather it not (I'm looking at you IGN and Gamespot; put this game in your first person shooter loving pipe and smoke it for all I care).

- PACKAGE DESIGN: 2:
Meh. They mailed this in and in the title the word "Revolution" looks like it was done by someone who just discovered text elements in photoshop. Why for the love of the Hanging Gardens did they overlay a texture on Sid's name? ugh. The only saving grace is the Shepard Fairey poster printed on the back of the cover sleeve. Why not put that on the cover?

- PACKAGE ART: 3:
The artist must have played the game only twice. He drew the world at war, complete with two nukes going off and a giant explosion in the southern part of Greenland(?). Way to go. Anyhow, it falls in line with the game art and design. Cartoonish. Fairey's Poster balances out the mess on the front enough to give it a 3.

OVERALL: 3.83

That is an average.

Civil

The time is nigh! The Civilization release on Xbox 360 is now. Oh, I'll get it... but will this hardened vet of the PC version like it? Or will it force me to buy a new Mac to play Civ IV. Will this game make me adjust my top ten video games? Doubt it. Will it be fun? We shall see.

Beautiful Blood There Will Be

Finally got around to scratching an itch I've had for a while. There Will Be Blood was finally consumed. Had this movie been directed by someone else it would have been held in better regard (now that the DVD is out) because the word that the same director did Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love did this one must be out. All those movies where popular but could be polarizing. For me those movies are fine. But to be frankly honest Blood is my favorite out of this bunch. What he shows on film is more then the story of Daniel Plainview; it's a visual slice of what was in this country. It is a beautiful film to look at. I like it on that merit alone. There are lots of people out there who would love to see a time, a place, a story on film... I'm not alone on this. But more often then not, when you finally see it on film it's a big let down because the director didn't do their homework. Case and point here are movies that revolve around the Civil War. The scenery in Virginia and Maryland alone would keep me riveted for hours. Anyway... steering away from that topic and to shorten this... PT Anderson and company got it right and that is an extremely refreshing thing to witness.

Take note all you future Civil War movie making people.

Lost BioShock Planet ESB

I'm retiring BioShock from my play list. There, I said it. I've come to terms with this now and can now move on to some other 360 game. I had to do the same thing with Lost Planet. Both these games slowly became a time and energy suck. Both had promising starts then just fizzled and with both the same strange thing happened... my 360 started to collect dust. Almost as if I had to motivate myself in to playing it, always knowing that since it was in the console tray I had to play that game.

With Lost Planet I didn't feel so guilty, but with BioShock I kinda do. It got great reviews, it looks fabulous, decent story, a good single player experience, Todd Brakke over at The Nut and Feisty Weasel finished it (excellent wrap up)... all that. But why, oh why am I avoiding it? Maybe it is longer hours at Art.com? Maybe just not in a current gen mode? Whatever. If I'm squeezing in a game like Wolf of the Battlefield on XBL then it means I just couldn't get into it, period.

I feel like this game was given more credit then it was do based solely on it being an alternative to Halo 3 or even Call of Duty 4 or both. It's comparable to the media giving good reviews to a undeserving band just because it wasn't the band du jour at the time. Not so much that they are bad, just that more often then not they turn out to be a muddled mess.

Maybe this is Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Moondog ESB talking but... No mas BioShock, No mas. I've piped the Moondog correctly and hacked into my game vault in under 60 seconds to reserve a special place for you next to Lost Planet and Table Tennis on my 360 shelf.

Moondog people, Moondog.

Review Structure

The Sega Genesis is making a comeback here in my life. I was able to pick up a handful of decent games yesterday as I travelled around town to local thrift stores. I'm looking forward to playing Cliffhanger (the movie adaptation), ESWAT, IMG Tennis, Winter Challenge (Olympic party game), and Streets of Rage (an Arcade classic).

This puts my total genesis game collection at a measly 26. Sad, yes... but growing. Last night I started a cataloging system that may grow into something more then an excel sheet in the future. Right now it will serve as a database for all the games in the Genesis collection. It's got Title, Genre, Developer, Distributor, Avg Ebay Price (item must have Box, Manual, Cart), my assigned value, rarity and general demand; all the regular stuff but then I took it a bit farther by hashing out my own way to review games by breaking them down to 1-5 scores in several key areas i find thought and discussion provoking on top of accurately assigning a score I am satisfied with.

The categories are as follows:

- Story
- Objective
- In-Game Design (meters, game menus, maps, etc...)
- In-Game Artwork (graphics)
- Audio/Sound
- Gameplay (controls, too difficult or easy)
- Emotional Impact
- Longevity
- Historical Significance
- X Factor (is it fun?)
- Package Design
- Package Artwork

For me, something like this works because it levels the playing field a bit. It also forces me to consider the game instead of just saying it is fun and put's structure behind what I'm saying. It's more interesting with more to think about. I've taken what others might see as one category like story (writing) and broken out objective because a game can have a great story but be ruined by the games objectives execution (go there, get that, unlock this, etc).

Design and Artwork go hand in hand but are distinctly different. Some games have great design (Madden games), but completely drop the ball on graphics (Madden). Current generation games may have a leg up in this category, but have you ever gone back and looked ate a game like Comix Zone or even Jungle Book on the Genesis? The look great. That said though, some games don't look so hot but still work and innovate with the overall design of the game screens (both menu and in-game). Right below, you'll see screen shots from a couple Ghost Recon Games. I'm not going to comment here about which I prefer, but you get the idea of what I'm getting at. Graphics and Design in games are different.



Longevity and Historical Significance help the older games. Again separate things. Longevity can be aided by time based achievements, easter eggs, online play, updates, co-operative play, hi scores, just plain fun, etc... On the other hand Historical Significance is a game that made an impact on the industry or sometimes other industries. A good example of a game that has longevity would be something like World of Warcraft or Golden Eye and Historical Significance would be something like Spacewar! or Pong.


Design and Artwork are split out again for Package Design and Package Artwork. Warlords is and excellent example of greatness being achieved in both categories:

After seeing this image you have to wonder why games then began to use images like the below to sell games:


Structuring out a review based on certain cornerstones is nothing new. Nor is it necessarly the best way to approach anything. Had a professor in school told me to do this I would have gotten angry, stating that art is emotion. Perhaps the old me is right in a way. But using numbers as a way to gauge a video game ads backbone and heck, it is fun.

Just Combine Everything Together

how, what, who... where now?

I, uh. when i found, this evening. Dancing, Star Wars... Is it just me or is this more entertaining then Episode I. I got it, no CGI. I'm going to bed.

wooden gates or to noble strength

i walk with pounding, around and around moving towards what only i can see in front of me, approach what only makes sense for a short while or so out. i continue, and continue. going one way, and then towards another. pounding, pounding. once now i reach one spot, i love, throwing my arms around it while continuing to move to the next. i'll hold to it till i have something else to grab. now two then three, then one has to go ((=sum(1+one+1parentheses-onedouble)es. all the while moving and holding more then i can handle. my feet are fractured now then, and fall to my knees but continue to pound as though nothing has been lost, nothing is in pain. so continuing but only on my knees my legs crumble, and can hardly move. afterwards only reaching as far as my arms can go and owning only what i can account for. finally pointing to open wooden gates or to noble strengths in name where shear interest, beauty, voice tone, gorgeous lines stop* once i would have gone but now see only reasons not to, and retreat to a lost time, to a youth that cannot change, more... that i fear deeply and do not wish to change. to shadows that others have become to shadows i no longer have the power to rectify, to ones i can no longer reach and are not with in my arms length. now i can only speak. talking of things that have might have been to shared memories that go forgotten and words and actions i can no longer take. in time i'll look behind for my shadows, then to my left, back round back to the right then finally in front where i knew all along i'd find it. walking slowly it'll be fully formed and begging me to move towards it again without consequence and fear till i inexorably will grab, hold and destroy again.

Commando 3

The Xbox Live game Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 is worth a mention if only for nostalgic reasons. It's pedigree is old school, top down shooter action. Unlimited bullets? check.