Fun with Canada's provincial flags!

With some notable exceptions, U.S. state flags are a drab bunch. Our neighbors to the north, however, are a different story. While some Canadian provincial flags are too busy for their own good, they're almost all distinctive and exciting. In the United States, only one state (Maryland) has a flag based on British heraldry. Canada, on the other hand, is chock-full of heraldic-yet-fun! flags. Let's take a gander.

Québec has by far the most famous flag of any province. Their Fleurdelisé is Canada's equivalent of Texas' Lone Star flag: many Quebecers fly the Fleurdelisé more prominently than the Canadian national flag. In a bilingual country, it's as much a statement of French Canadian identity as it is a provincial symbol.

New Brunswick has my personal favorite provincial flag. Yes, it's a little (or much) too complex, but I love it anyway. How can you not? It's got my favorite sort of ship on it, a Scottish lymphad! It stands for one of New Brunswick's most important industries, shipbuilding. The gold lion above represents the province's connection to the Brunswick region of Germany.

Adopted in 1858, Nova Scotia has the only provincial flag from before the twentieth century. It's a simple color swap of Scotland's Saint Andrew's Cross, to represent the province's history as a Scottish colony (yes, Scotland had colonies of its own!). The Lion Rampant in the center is a bit redundant, since it also represents Scotland; it's only there to differentiate Nova Scotia's flag from the naval ensign of Russia. Still, it's a classy flag.

Prince Edward Island has an even more medieval-looking flag than New Brunswick does! It's got that Middle Ages art style, with the slightly faded colors and alternating band around three sides for good measure. The lion above stands for the province's namesake King Edward VII, and the trees represent the three counties of PEI (the saplings on the left) under the protection of Great Britain (the larger oak tree on the right). Monarchist indeed.

A fittingly two-part flag for a two-part province, Newfoundland and Labrador. The blue half on the left is a reference to the British Union Jack. The two red triangles on the right represent the two regions of the province. The gold arrow is a tribute to the province's military sacrifices, and together with the triangles forms a trident to represent the province's fishing industry.

British Columbia has another "lovably overcomplicated" flag. The Union Jack with a crown in the middle represents British colonialism, and the setting sun over the ocean represents the province's location on the west coast. What makes this flag especially goofy is that instead of placing the Union Jack in the canton like other provinces and countries, it's stretched across the entire top half of the flag for strange elongated proportions. It's like this is two flags smashed atop one another into one. I love it.

Saskatchewan, the only flag in the country not to feature the color blue! The great green color on the top half represents northern Saskatchewan's forests, and the gold below represents southern Saskatchewan's farmland. The long proportions of this flag give the two colors greater effect. The state flower, the western red lily, sits on the right side of the flag, while the provincial coat of arms sits in the canton.

Alberta has the closest flag to those of most U.S. states with the boring "blue background + state seal" formula. But it stands above most of those U.S. flags because of its brighter colors and simplified design. The hatched wheat symbol is a nice touch.

Canada's most populous province, Ontario, features a flag created as royalist protest. The Canadian Red Ensign served as Canada's national flag until the current Maple Leaf flag was adopted in 1965 to rid the country of its colonial past. Many conservative Ontarians hated the Maple Leaf flag, believing it disrespects the country's rich British cultural history. So Ontario adopted this flag, which is essentially the Canadian Red Ensign with the Ontario coat of arms on it.

Manitoba did the exact same thing. The bison in the coat of arms serves as a melancholy hint of the awesome flag Manitoba could have if they decided to get a little more progressive.

For completion's sake, let's look at Canada's territorial flags as well. This is my favorite of the three, the flag of Nunavut. It features a red inuksuk, a symbol of the Inuit people, along with a blue North Star in the top right corner. The halved gold and white colors look great, but for some reason remind me of the Vatican flag. Probably unintentional.

The Northwest Territories sport a flag with a fun coat of arms. The white and red represent the snow, ice, and water, and the wavy line in the shield represents the Northwest Passage. The green segment represents the forests south of the tree line, and the red segment represents the tundra north of the tree line. The gold rectangles represent the territories' minerals, and the fox head represents the fur trade.

The Yukon flag features all sorts of symbolism. The territorial coat of arms sits above a wreath of fireweed, the floral emblem of Yukon. The tricolor striping has green for forests, white for snow, and blue for water.

The looming legacy of the Confederacy in Southern state flags

When I wrote about boring U.S. state flags on Monday, most Southern states were notably absent. A civil war based in part on state sovereignty will do that: for the most part, Southern states have more interesting flags than their Northern counterparts. But that's not always a good thing. The flags of the Confederate States of America have loomed over Southern state flags like a ghost for a century and a half.

It's tough for Southern states. They want to develop a cohesive flag identity that links them together without relying on their most famous flags, which evoke a history of slavery and oppression. Some states have fared better than others.

Current Mississippi flag, adopted 1894

Rejected 2001 proposal
for Mississippi flag

Mississippi is the only state still to feature the Confederate battle flag in its state flag. A vote was held in 2001 to replace it with the flag you see on the right.
The proposal replaced the Confederate flag in the canton with a blue field featuring three rings of stars: the outer ring representing the thirteen original colonies, the middle ring to represent the six nations to have held sovereignty over the state, and the larger star in the middle to represent Mississippi itself. It adds up to twenty stars, representing Mississippi's status as the 20th state. Unfortunately, the incumbent flag with Confederate imagery won the vote.

The best U.S. state flags

Yesterday I bemoaned the lack of quality in U.S. state flags. I was quickly reprimanded by readers who pointed out the exceptions to the trend. And it's true, despite over half the state flags in the country fitting the "state seal + blank background" formula, there are a few truly great designs.

In my personal experience, states I've been to with good flags also tend to be the states that more prominently display their flags everywhere. It's no coincidence: a good state flag creates more state pride.

The most iconic state flag is of course Texas. Many Texans prefer the Lone Star Flag over the U.S. flag. It's a simple design. Need I say more?

The second most famous state flag is probably California. This one breaks a few of the basic rules of good flag design. Normally, having any sort of lettering is in poor taste. But it works on this flag. I think it's because it doesn't just say "CALIFORNIA." Instead, it says "CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC," which sounds sufficiently epic.
This flag is also a bit too detailed. Have you ever noticed that in different images of the California flag, the bear has slightly different facial expressions? It's because the bear is too complex, with its realistic features and shading.
But somehow this all adds up to a classic state flag. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Why are so many U.S. state flags terrible?

I wish I could say this is the worst flag in the country,
but two dozen other state flags give it a run for its money.

Flags are icons of whatever they represent. When you see a flag, you should immediately be able to tell what it stands for. It's strange that the United States, one of the flag-wavingest countries in the world, has so many subpar state flags.

From afar, do you have any idea which state's flag this is?
If not, it's failed as a flag.

Why? Roughly half the states in the country have adopted the "boring state seal + bland navy blue background" format for their flag. Some state flags even have the name of the state spelled out on them, defeating the entire purpose of having a flag to represent them. Think of the state with the most proud residents of all: Texas. It's one of the few states to produce a decent flag. This is no coincidence; if you care about your state, chances are you've given it a good flag.

There will always be a few exceptions, but the North American Vexillological Association defines a "good flag" by five basic principles:

1. Keep it simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
2. Use meaningful symbolism. The flag’s images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
3. Use two or three basic colors. Limit the number of colors on the flag to three, which contrast well and come from the standard color set.
4. No lettering or seals. Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal.
5. Be distinctive or be related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.

14 things I'd like to see in NHL 14

Today EA Canada gave the first hints of the next installment in their long-running hockey franchise, with the first details to be released on Monday. With that in mind, here's a list of my fourteen most-wanted features for NHL 14. The theme I keep coming back to is making it a truly global game, looking to EA's own FIFA soccer series for inspiration.

1. The Kontinental Hockey League. If EA wants to include all the best players in the world, they need to pony up the cash for the KHL license. One of my favorite things about EA's FIFA is that it includes almost every top league in the world. NHL 13 respectably includes the Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Swiss, and German hockey leagues, but at this point they can't keep denying the second-best league on the planet. Russia's Kontinental Hockey League now boasts teams in seven different countries all over Eastern Europe, with rumored future expansion even into Italy. Most of the best non-NHL players in the world play in the KHL. Why keep stalling, EA?


2. The Olympics! With the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics right around the corner, it seems there's no better time to revamp NHL's international teams. EA probably can't wrestle the rights to the Olympics from Sega, but they could at least get the rights from the International Ice Hockey Federation to use real international uniforms and real IIHF World Championships. I'd love to see international play incorporated into every mode of the game, much like it is in EA's FIFA.


3. College hockey. The Frozen Four is going on right now in Pittsburgh. Why can't I play this in videogame form? The 60-team major junior Canadian Hockey League was added in NHL 11, and it'd be nice to have the U.S. equivalent. Like in EA's college football franchise, NCAA rules would probably prohibit real player names from being used, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for college hockey in NHL.


4. The ECHL, the third tier of North American professional hockey. NHL already includes the second-tier American Hockey League, and the ECHL would complete the NHL's three-tier farm system pyramid.


5. The Slovak Extraliga, the other major European hockey league not included in NHL 13.


6. Why are my top five requests all more teams and leagues? So the game can have a deeper career system. All these league and team additions would make career modes in NHL that much more dynamic, whether in "Be a Pro" or in "Be a GM" mode. Once again, just look at how EA does it with FIFA.


7. The correct number of on-ice officials. Real-life NHL games feature two referees and two linesmen, but the NHL series has long featured... one referee. And that's it. Would it be that hard to add three more officials?


8. I'd also like to see the on-ice officials made "live" in NHL 14. In 13, the ref is a ghost that players and pucks alike can go right through uninterrupted. But in real life, sometimes the puck will inadvertently bounce off the official and change the flow of play. FIFA already does this, so why can't NHL?


9. A revamped single-player franchise mode. The focus in recent years has been on the EA Sports Hockey League and online play, but for someone who just wants to sit down and play a "campaign," NHL 13 is pretty mundane. It's really just... a series of games. And even if you lift the Stanley Cup, it's just one short mediocre cutscene followed by... another series of games.


10. A revamped standard online mode. While everyone is all about teaming up with other people and playing six-a-side matchups online, often I just want to play simple one-on-one matchups online. The only depth in NHL 13's standard online mode is a leveling system. Can't there be a bit more to it?


11. A revamped interface and menu system. It's far too wonky to get to game modes and make quick roster changes in the game.


12. Improved "NHL Moments". NHL 13 tried recreating situations where the player has to play a highlight from the real-life NHL season, but it always boils down to either "score a bunch of goals" or "don't allow any goals." It's a great idea that's been poorly executed, and it'd be nice to see more dynamic, specific situations in NHL Moments. Speaking of NHL Moments,


13. Better historic teams. Right now players can replay "historic" NHL Moments, but because there aren't really any historic teams in the game, the player will play as Wayne Gretzky with the 2013 Oilers, or Mario Lemieux with the 2013 Penguins. Can't we get historically accurate teams for these guys to play with?


14. A better soundtrack. I know I can import my own songs into the game, but it's a huge roundabout process. What we're left with is NHL's completely horrible butt-rock soundtrack every single year. And only a handful of songs. NHL 13 features 16 tracks, which get to be pretty tiresome when you hear them over and over and over and over. FIFA 13, on the other hand, features 50 songs on its soundtrack. I understand hockey isn't as popular as soccer, but can't we get a few more? And not all hockey fans are Nickelback enthusiasts. While FIFA features a wide range of musical genres, NHL has... Thousand Foot Krutch. And Shinedown. And My Darkest Days. Please, please, no more butt-rock.

If I can get at least one of these wishes fulfilled when the first details of NHL 14 are released on Monday, I'll be happy. We'll see.

Dubai, Jimi Hendrix, and late to the Spec Ops: The Line party

Everything I'd like to say in a traditional review of first-time German studio Yager Development's Spec Ops: The Line has been written elsewhere. The game came out last June, so I'm a bit late to the cult-following party. Suffice to say it's one of the best games I've played in years.

If you haven't played The Line yet, the best way to experience it is by not reading anything about it beforehand. So please stop reading this. Just go play it.

If you've already played it, you've likely already read the great analysis by Tom Bissell and the in-depth spoiler-filled interview with the game's designers at Polygon. You've probably also watched the two-part video analysis of the game by the folks at Extra Credits.

So here are just a few things I thought I'd add, things I haven't seen many people talk about or just things I felt particularly strongly about. I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

Dubai

Dubai as the setting. Too many military shooters are set in ambiguous Middle Eastern non-countries. Spec Ops: The Line specifically chooses Dubai as its locale, and takes full advantage of its cityscape and geopolitical importance. Dubai is different than any other major Middle Eastern city, a Western-style spectacle of a manufactured metropolis. The city becomes a character of its own in The Line.

Daredevil breaks my heart: Black Cat and sexism in comics

As I've said before, I don't pretend to be a comics expert. I just started reading them in the past month or so. But a quick google search of "comics sexism" brings up an embarrassing 2.82 million results as of this writing, so I'm not alone in thinking it's an issue the medium must deal with.

So far in my short comic-reading career, I'd avoided anything overtly sexist. And I absolutely loved the first collected edition of Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera's Daredevil. But then I got to Daredevil's two-part crossover with Amazing Spider-Man.

The crossover revolves around Daredevil and Spider-Man teaming up to deal with the Black Cat. It's the first appearance of a female costumed character in the series, and Black Cat's depiction is utterly shameful for the twenty-first century.

Neither Spider-Man nor Daredevil have a great track record with respect for women--but that's okay with me, since it's generally presented as a character flaw for both of them. Peter Parker is a hormonal teenage boy, and we all know plenty of those in real life. I may or may not have been one myself at some point. Rich guy Matt Murdock is presented in Waid's Daredevil as a womanizer in the Mad Men vein, fitting of Paolo Rivera's retro art during his tenure working on the series. Maybe it's telling that as soon as Rivera stopped doing all the artwork for Daredevil, we got this sexist crossover.

2013 MLS jersey rankings

I've been on a jersey roll lately! I did a Major League Soccer jersey ranking a few years ago, but it's time for a new one, especially when everyone's jersey is lightyears ahead of where they were last time I  did this list.

The MLS season started this past weekend, so there's no better time to rank the league's uniforms for the year. MLS has acknowledged jersey enthusiasts this year, with their first-ever "Jersey Week" revealing all the new kits for the season. Adidas does a great job with its MLS uniforms, so even the "worst" jerseys on this list look great compared to many teams around the world. So let's get started!

Note: there's a new number/name font for the back of MLS jerseys this year. It's a big improvement over the last one.

19. Portland Timbers

It breaks my heart to put Portland dead last. The last two seasons they wore perhaps my all-time favorite Major League Soccer kits. It's as if they didn't really know how to improve upon perfection, so they just went for a huge downgrade.

Both their home and away jerseys look very similar to their last set, but with unnecessary changes. I guess that's the real shame of the soccer world's constant jersey turnover cycle.

Why do they need those arbitrary white stripes on the sides? Why do they need that sci-fi triangle collar thing? That Portland city flag near the waist is nice, but why does it need to be in the shape of Oregon? Isn't that a bit redundant?

18. Montréal Impact

It's a shame that a team with such an iconic French-Canadian identity to capitalize on has such a lackluster uniform for its first couple years in MLS.

Yes, they wear blue and white and they feature the fleur-de-lis everywhere, but I can't help but feel that their shirts look like practice jerseys. And really, "Montréal Impact"? I still can't get over the fact that their team name is incredibly 1990s.

But there's hope! Last week the club unveiled their new third jersey, and it's a work of art. The Inter Milan-style blue-and-black stripes are timeless. One can only hope a shirt like this eventually becomes their home jersey.

Thoughts on the new U.S. national team uniform

Yesterday, U.S. Soccer unveiled its new "Centennial" home kit for 2013/14. A throwback to the first U.S. soccer jerseys in 1913, it's a simple white design with a retro crest:

The new kit has been universally praised by fans, and for good reason. In an age of all sorts of "technological advancements" for jerseys, this is a clean, classy design from Nike. And I don't think the centennial crest will be the new permanent team logo, but it could at least be a hint that the old ugly logo is on its way out for good.

But I'm not so happy about this jersey. First of all, it seems U.S. Soccer has finally succumbed to the Annual Jersey Cycle, releasing a new kit for fans to shell out huge amounts of money on every single year. Sigh. I guess that's modern soccer for ya.

More importantly, though, do we really want this blank white shirt to be our "look"? It doesn't stand out at all among international teams--many of whom have been around for much longer with much more celebrated histories than U.S. Soccer--and these blank white shirts don't give us any sort of identity.

U.S. Soccer has struggled with the Generic White Shirt look for a long time, but they seemed to finally figure it out last year when they unveiled a beautiful red and white striped shirt with blue shorts (pictured on right). The hoops looked great and gave us a real identity we didn't have before.

But of course, fans are always afraid of change, and many refer to it disparagingly as the "Where's Waldo" jersey. They were all ecstatic to see a return to vanilla with the centennial jersey.

It's a shame. I was hoping the Where's Waldo jersey could turn into a permanent identity for U.S. Soccer as our national team slowly becomes a real player on the world stage. If we're lucky, U.S. Soccer will return to the red/white horizontal striped look for the World Cup next year in Brazil. If we're lucky.

Daredevil: a breath of fresh air, except for the part where Captain America is a jerk again

After reading Ultimate Spider-Man and Batman in my quest to become versed in comic books, I wanted to try a slightly less popular superhero. I've heard great things about Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye, but the first collected edition of that series doesn't come out until the end of this month. So I went with another critically-acclaimed series about a more upbeat superhero: Daredevil, by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera.

The most immediately striking part of Daredevil is the artwork. While many of today's mainstream superhero comics go for realism in their art, Daredevil features a retro style full of bright colors. It reflects the tone of the series, whose swashbuckling adventurism is in stark contrast to the Serious Business of people in other modern comics like Batman and the Avengers.

Click to see full-size image so you can appreciate it fully

Just look at the cover of issue 1! At first glance I thought the background was just abstract scribbles, but then it hit me: it's actually a detailed cityscape that Daredevil is traversing, and because he's blind it represents his interpretation of that cityscape through his other senses.

Sony can win the next console war for me with one thing: international awareness

This doesn't address my concerns. At all.

Like anyone, I was interested to see what Sony had in store with the PlayStation 4 when they announced it last week. For me, though, there were two glaring omissions that were even more important than the whole will-it-or-won’t-it-play-used-games thing (which doesn’t matter to me in the slightest, honestly; I’m not an impulsive game shopper: I wait for sales): the console itself, which I not only hope looks cool, but won’t take up an immense amount of my precious floor space, and will-it-or-won’t-it be region free.

For example, before it came out only about a month ago in the US, I played about 15 hours of the Japanese version of Ni No Kuni (fantastic game, btw). I am good enough at Japanese that I can read the two basic alphabets at lightning speed, but my understanding of Japanese vocabulary and grammar is more than a little suspect. As is my general familiarity with the casual spoken language. The character Drippy, named Shizuku in Japan, is nearly indecipherable in the English version of the game with his wacky Cockney-like tongue and ridiculous speed of speech, but it’s a perfect adaptation of the Japanese Shizuku, who uses un-dictionary-able slang and a speaking voice that makes you wish you had digital hands that could wring his neck through the screen. It was a very slow and difficult 15 hours and it turns out, as I discovered only a few days after receiving my American Ni No Kuni, only about five hours of actual gameplay. I’d spent around ten hours just listening to the cutscenes and reading the subtitles on pause, looking up what I could in the dictionary, and, in many cases, giving it up for slang or idiom I simply had no knowledge of and moving on. Needless to say, that was not an especially fun way to spend my time.

This whole scene was a particularly frustrating hour of attempted translation.

This is by far my most pressing concern. As some of you may recall, I live and work near Nagoya, Japan, but I am not fluent in Japanese, speaking, reading, or writing. This is an issue when it comes to games that require any amount of effort outside of platforming, sports, or music games. Role-playing games are a favorite genre of mine, but playing them with a dictionary in front of me is so ridiculously slow that it kills the game experience.

Lego review: 9470 Shelob Attacks

Lego has historically struggled with creating brick-built animals. While Lego bricks are great for building things with lots of right angles and flat surfaces like vehicles and buildings, it's a bit tougher to use Lego bricks to recreate organic lifeforms. Lego realizes this, as we can see in their recent Dino theme where the eponymous dinosaurs were not brick-built but unfortunately more action-figure-like.

Shelob in this set is perhaps Lego's Best Spider Ever. It's their third attempt at a Giant Spider; before Shelob, Lego made two different sets based on Harry Potter's Shelob ripoff Aragog. There was the hilariously cartoonish Aragog in 4727 Aragog in the Dark Forest in 2002, and the slightly less terrible but still terrifically terrible Aragog in 4738 Hagrid's Hut in 2010. Look at those sword-legs! Indeed, there are two key problems with all of Lego's previous spiders: getting the eight multi-jointed legs right, and getting the abdomen right.

Shelob Attacks rights all the wrongs of previous Lego spiders. Although they're still a bit fragile, Shelob has well-designed legs that are actually strong enough to support the spider's body on their own. And Shelob has a huge abdomen which adds some meatiness (yum!) to her body. She's even got a spinneret so she can trap Frodo for a juicy treat, and imposing pincers to munch on him with.

Look closely at Shelob's eyes. One of them is poked out! This is a nice lil reference to the source material, where Sam stabs her in the eyeball. Speaking of the non-Shelob parts of the set, let's take a gander: There's Frodo with his blade Sting, the Phial of Galadriel, and of course the One Ring that fits snugly on his hand. The best part of this minifigure, though, is his petrified "I've just been poisoned" facial expression--click on the image above for a zoomed-in view. We've got his loyal Samwise, who looks pretty much how you'd expect him to look.

Then there's Gollum. Instead of a standard minifig body, Gollum has a hunched-over mold with a random stud on his back (to later attach some elven rope?). I'm not really a fan of this body or his strange facial expression, but he wouldn't have worked with a standard minifig body. I'm not sure what the correct portrayal of Gollum would've been.

Nevertheless, this is a nifty set. A realistic, if slightly fragile, depiction of Shelob. Great Frodo and Sam minifigs. And the first appearance of Gollum!

Vocal Music in Games: Gears of War

Even though most people might associate a certain song with Gears of War due to a commercial, the focus of this supposedly regular series is on original (not in the unique sense) music for/from video games.  Who then shall be highlighted?  None other than Dave Mustaine with his mega power of considering certain vowels unnecessary.  "Gears of War" is a song in the franchise-launching Gears of War.  It's rife with all of the elements you're used to from Megadeth.  Quite frankly it sounds like a generic Megadeth song, but hey, it works here.  It's definitely a musical style that fits quite well with the nature of the game.  The lyrics aren't too complicated either but what they lack in complexity they make up for in repetition and heavy handedness as they get across a feeling of "gears of war."  It's a simple tune that knows what it is supposed to be and accomplishes that goal rather efficiently.

Thoughts on the PlayStation 4 reveal

After years of speculation, Sony finally announced the PlayStation 4 yesterday. It was inevitable, but considering I finally got a PlayStation 3 this past December, I was nevertheless a little bummed out.

PlayStation 4 won't be a day-one buy for me regardless of my PS3, because with the glaring exception of the Nintendo GameCube, new consoles tend to have sparse libraries for their first year of existence (yes, earlier Nintendo consoles had Mario at launch, but they didn't have anything else for a long time). No matter what the hardware is like, it means nothing without great software. What were my takeaways from Sony's big reveal last night?

Global gaming: The Snowfield (Singapore)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative.

The Snowfield - Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, 2011 (play it here)

Considering we're getting up to ten inches of snow today in Kansas City, I felt like writing about The Snowfield. But surprisngly, it comes from Singapore--not exactly a place known for its wintry weather.

The Snowfield was developed by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. GAMBIT was a collaboration focused on encouraging young game designers in Singapore to explore the medium. Their 2011 work is a war game, but not quite a wargame. In The Snowfield, you play as a World War I soldier walking around a battlefield in the aftermath of the battle.

Considering the industry's fixation with wargames, this post-war image is a great commentary on the aftermath we don't get to see in other games. No shooting people, no action. Just suffering bodies in the cold.

Lego review: 9469 Gandalf Arrives

As an introductory set to Lego Lord of the Rings, Gandalf Arrives is fitting. It's from an introductory scene in The Fellowship of the Ring! It's got Frodo with the book he's reading in the film's opening scene after the prologue, and Gandalf has his horse-driven cart in which "he arrives exactly when he means to."

A nice touch is the collection of fireworks Lego Gandalf brings to use at Bilbo's birthday party, including the red dragon firework that Merry and Pippin steal. Even more nifty is that the red dragon firework piece is actually a repurposed snake piece from Lego's Ninjago theme, seen here being released by the fearsome Rattlecopter.

This is also one of the first sets to include Lego's new horse figure with movable hind legs! Huzzah!

Reluctantly embracing Batman

I've been getting into comics lately. I just finished catching up with Ultimate Spider-Man, and I figured the next series I should tackle is the one on everyone's "best comics of 2012" list: Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's reboot of Batman, subtitled in its first collection as The Court of Owls.

Despite its critical acclaim, I was hesitant to embrace Bruce Wayne. Much like how Spider-Man was the "it" guy in superhero movies during my formative years, Batman is the popular one these days due to Christopher Nolan's film trilogy. He's so popular I instinctively don't want to like him, because I'm that sort of person.

This is the cover of a real Batman issue.
You wouldn't see this in a Chris Nolan film.

While I enjoyed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I thought they weren't the Greatest Movies of All Time like many other nerds have deemed them. And The Dark Knight Rises was... mediocre at best. I understand Batman is a "serious" character, but at the end of the day he's still a guy in a bat costume punching bad guys. Nolan's trilogy takes itself too seriously, both in terms of tone and in terms of realism in its art direction.

Halo 4: Mechanical Design Devolved

The Halo franchise is much beloved by a rather large group of people, and it has some prime real estate in my heart.  There have been scientific studies done in the past that have concluded that everyone digs giant robots, especially chicks.

Omni Consumer Products latest Detroit clean-up mech

It would then stand to reason that the inclusion of mechs in Halo 4 should be like chocolate and peanut butter.  Alas the concoction is more akin to turkey gravy and whole peanuts.  Sure you can mix them, but the end result is a gritty brown mess.  Halo 4's primary antagonist is one of the worst character designs I've ever had had the displeasure to lay eyes on, but my main complaint here is that Halo 4's Mantis is a poor design.

Global gaming: Sine Mora (Hungary)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative.

Sine Mora - Digital Reality, 2012

I've been on a Suda51 kick recently, and I love me some Eastern European game design. Grasshopper Manufacture's most recent collaboration is with Budapest-based studio Digital Reality for the shoot-em-up downloadable title Sine Mora. It may be the best modern shoot-em-up since Treasure's Ikaruga. Like Ikaruga, its twitch-gameplay difficulty harkens back to the genre's arcade roots. But while most games like this are vertical these days, Sine Mora is a horizontal game based around a time-slowing mechanic which helps the player get through the bullet-hell levels and epic bosses. Grasshopper did the artwork, but Digital Reality did all the actual game design.

And most importantly, while most foreign games in my global gaming series are still in English (for better and for worse), Sine Mora's characters actually speak in Hungarian. I love it. I don't know if it's Grasshopper who made the call to let Digital Reality keep the game in their native tongue, but publisher Microsoft deserves major props for letting it happen. This may be the first time a game has ever been released worldwide in Hungarian, a language spoken by only 15 million people.

The global gaming map so far (zoom out for full map):

View Global Gaming Spotlight in a larger map

Lego review: 30211 Uruk-hai with Ballista

Uruk-hai with Ballista is sadly vastly inferior to its fellow Lego Lord of the Rings polybag, Frodo with Cooking Corner. While the other features a charming set of friendly alcoholic undertones, Uruk-hai with Ballista is simply... an Uruk-hai with a little ballista. It's pretty pointless, since you can get these same pieces in higher quantities in the Uruk-hai Army and Battle of Helm's Deep sets. But this lil polybag has been quite popular as an army-builder for people who really want ten thousand Uruk-hai to attack the Hornburg.

Ten games I'm looking forward to in 2013

a.k.a. A Few First-Person Walking Games

We're into the dead period of the year when it comes to game releases. But fret not! There's a ton of the horizon. I struggled to limit this list to just ten, so I won't include the upcoming standalone remakes of great titles like The Stanley Parable and DayZ. And of course, there's the upcoming Director's Cut of one of my favorite games of all time, Deadly Premonition. But when it comes to actual new games in 2013, here you go:

SimCity - Maxis

This one's less than a month away! The reboot of Will Wright's seminal city-builder looks more epic than ever, with a decade-long wait after SimCity 4 in 2003. While most of the rest of the games on this list are pretentious arty independent games, I'll always have a soft spot for well-designed strategy games. Heck, I've poured more hours into Civilization V than anything else I've written about on this blog. SimCity hopes to spark the next generation of strategy titles, with an increased focus on co-op and having your city interact with other players' cities online.

I've got mixed feelings on the "reboot" concept where a company gives a game the same name as the first game in the series, whether it's SimCity or Tomb Raider or Bionic Commando. You inevitably end up calling it "SimCity 2013" to distinguish it from the original, which seems to defeat the purpose of the name in the first place.

Lego review: 30210 Frodo with Cooking Corner

One of two polybags released for the Lord of the Rings line, this is a great lil introduction to the series. You get Frodo in his "Shire outfit," a neat little stove with a frying pan and sausage, a wine bottle, a goblet, and a keg.

The alcoholic undertones of this mini-set are pretty excellent. Nowhere on the packaging does it specify what the keg is or what it holds inside, and the "wine bottle" could just be a "bottle." Kids are left to figure out what it all means on their own. But with hobbits' massive appetite for alcohol, it's fitting that this set includes so much. I'm happy Lego let the set designer get away with it.

Global gaming: Rock of Ages (Chile)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative.

Rock of Ages - ACE Team, 2011

We don't get the chance to talk about Latin American videogames very often, even as Chile has one of the region's strongest economies and standards of living. But we'll hopefully see more and more Latin American games over the next couple decades. Extra Credits even thinks so, in their totally unique and original "Global Games" video series they just started...

Rock of Ages is a hilarious, bizzare tower defense/Marble Madness hybrid with a Monty Python-esque art style. You control a giant rock with a creepy (in a good way) face. In some ways, it reminds me of the other giant-ball misunderstood classic, Odama. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2011, developed by three brothers in Santiago.

The game was published by Japanese distributor Atlus. as I get older and my taste in games gets more obscure, I gain more respect for Atlus--they do a great job of bringing a higher profile to smaller, lower-budget games. While the games industry splits into two distinct camps--AAA and indie--the "AA" games and publishers like this are beginning to disappear. Hopefully Atlus can continue to thrive into the next decade.

Thoughts on Suda51's new game Killer Is Dead

I've written on this blog before about how much I love Goichi Suda's Killer7. At this point in my life, it may be my favorite game of all time. The avant-garde approach to game design by his studio Grasshopper Manufacture is unmatched.

But as I've also written about on this blog, Suda's games have gone downhill since Killer7 in 2005. He seems to have realized his games have quirky appeal, so he's been banking more and more on the "silly" aspect of his work, without the bleak qualities of Killer7 that make it so evocative.

Grasshopper's first game following Killer7, No More Heroes, was more on the humorous side but still a brilliant game. But Suda's two major productions since then, Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw, are humorous to the point of losing the deeper meaning seen in Suda's older work.

So the announcement of Killer Is Dead is a welcome return to Suda's roots. Billed not as a sequel but a spiritual successor to Killer7, the first real details on Killer Is Dead have emerged over the past few weeks. Its official website is online, and the first official trailer has been released:

It sports the cel-shaded serious look of Killer7 mixed with a healthy dose of the swordplay hack-and-slash of No More Heroes. This is great, although I hope it isn't too button-mashy.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of Killer7 was simply interacting with its bizarre cast of characters and exploring the gameworld. From the first part of the trailer, I was worried it would be an action-adventure game with all "action" and no "adventure".

But the second part of the trailer beginning at the 1:50 mark of the video--the epilogue?--gives me hope. It's an introduction to the game's protagonist, the immaculately-named Mondo Zappa. This reminds me of Killer7 protagonist Garcian Smith, and lovable No More Heroes main character Travis Touchdown. Zappa hints at the next video featuring "a beautiful woman who has devilish hands," and we get to see indeed, a woman with at least ten hands. I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE!

The prevalence of moon imagery throughout the website and the trailer harkens back to Killer7, and of course, Mondo Zappa is probably a reference to musician Frank Zappa's daughter Moon Zappa. Suda has said in interviews that the game exists in a near-future where lunar tourism is prevalent, but insists that Killer Is Dead isn't a science fiction game. Coming from Grasshopper Manufacture, this could mean anything.

A final note: can Masafumi Takada do the soundtrack, please? He was the man behind the music of Killer7 and No More Heroes, but hasn't worked with Suda since then. Maybe he's the secret behind Grasshopper's greatest works.

2013 NHL jersey rankings

I wrote about changes in hockey jerseys this year, but I've never done a full NHL ranking of team sweaters. With a return to clean, classic looks being the new trend in jersey design, the NHL is looking better than ever 2013. This season is the most stagnant in a long time, uniform-wise, so it's the perfect opportunity to start my list. Without further ado:

30. Chicago Blackhawks

Hardcore hockey fans are always partial towards the sweaters of Original Six teams, and many folks in the hockey community point to this jersey in particular as the pinnacle of jersey aesthetics. I think it's absolutely atrocious. It's a boring sweater with no clear color scheme and an even more boring away jersey. But more importantly, it's racist. Defenders of the Blackhawks will say it's not nearly as incendiary as other Native American-named sports teams, like the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins. They even say it's "respectful." But how would you feel if there were a team called the Chicago Zulus, with a "respectful" cartoon tribal leader as its primary logo? In the 21st century, it's unacceptable. And unlike some other Native American-named teams, the Blackhawks have an easy way out: they could change the logo without changing the name, and "Blackhawks" could literally refer to birds rather than to an ethnic group of humans.

29. Anaheim Ducks

Chicago racism aside, this is by far the ugliest jersey in hockey and Anaheim knows it. They take every chance they can get to wear their slightly more colorful third jersey, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the third jersey become the new home jersey in a couple years. Even when I went to the Ducks home opener this year, more fans at Honda Center were wearing the third jersey than the home one. The home jersey has no personality, and the boring wordmark is too small to read from far away.
It frustrates me that all three California NHL teams feature predominantly black jerseys. Of all places to not wear black, you'd think it'd be California. The Ducks wear orange as a reference to Orange County where they play, which I'd like to see more of. And with the shoulder patch on their third jersey, they're even beginning to hint at their classic Mighty Ducks look. Perhaps it's a sign of things to come.

Global Gaming: The Path (Belgium)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative.

The Path - Tale of Tales, 2009

Tale of Tales is one of the first developers brought up in conversations about "art games." Many of their titles are more like interactive stories than games, per se. But the pretentious arty person I am, I'd argue interactive stories are games.

Anyway, Tale of Tales is known for titles like The Endless Forest, a massively-multiplayer game where you don't really do anything except walk around a forest as a deer, and dance around with other deer. They also made The Graveyard, a short game about an old lady... walking through a graveyard. That's the whole game. Their newest title, Bientôt l'été, is an asymmetrical multiplayer game about playing chess and drinking wine with anonymous strangers.

But Tale of Tales' most influential work is The Path. It's a psychological horror game based on the more grim (or Grimm?) side of fairy tales, and Little Red Riding Hood in particular. The player walks through the woods to Grandmother's house, and experiences some pretty creepy stuff along the way.

Despite lacking any overt "scares", The Path is more creepy than almost any horror game on the market today. It's only $10, so you should download it.

The Avengers ruined Spider-Man for me.

I didn't grow up reading comic books. But I'm a fairly nerdy person, and all "geek" culture owes itself to comic books--the original geek culture. Although superhero movies are more popular than ever, superhero comics remain a niche market. So I decided I should start reading some.

Coming of age in the early '00s, I've got a soft spot for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy. Yes, I even thought Spider-Man 3 was decent, but that's a debate for another day. So I decided to start my comic book career with Spidey. But even narrowing it down to one superhero, how do I dive headfirst into comics' infamously complex web of multiple continuities and crisscrossing storylines?

I remember hearing back in late 2011 that Peter Parker died, and there was a new Spider-Man. Not only that, but he's a black Latino kid named Miles Morales! There have been a few minority superheroes, but the industry is still dominated by straight white men. Black superheroes like Nick Fury and the Black Panther are only peripheral characters. But Spider-Man is Marvel's trademark guy; it's a big statement that they would make their most popular character a black kid. I liked this a lot, and the series reboot would be a good place to start since I wouldn't have to worry about catching up on Miles Morales' backstory. So I decided I should start by reading Spider-Man.

But of course, I quickly discovered there's more than one Spider-Man comic. Since major superheroes are owned by corporations rather than the individual authors who created them, the most marketable characters often have more than one series by more than one author going on at any given time. Batman has dozens of concurrent series being published at this very moment. Spider-Man, by comparison, only has a handful. But of course Marvel wouldn't be ballsy enough to make the primary Spider-Man comic feature a black kid. Miles Morales is featured in the spinoff series Ultimate Spider-Man. And Miles doesn't even have the spider-suit to himself! Inevitably, there was the crossover miniseries Spider-Men last year, where Marvel came up with a dumb excuse for parallel realities to collide so Miles could meet the "real" white guy Spider-Man, Peter Parker. I'm sure fanboys were pleased.