From the moment this game was announced, it’s been hounded by controversy. Mostly around the question of whether it was racist. Other, smarter, people have written about this issue at length in many locations including the Wall Street Journal. The only thing I would add, as someone who has played every major Resident Evil game, is that this was a missed opportunity for Capcom to rethink the player’s relationship with the murderous hordes in these games.

In previous RE games, you’re the outsider going into some dangerous, foreign environment where you shoot your way through to truth and hopefully some justice. Resident Evil 5 is different. Sheva makes it different. She’s a playable character who knows and lives where the game mostly takes place. The people being gunned down are supposed to be her friends and neighbors. Or as she says at the end, her “brothers.” The only problem is that this is never explored. She never hesitates. She never shows any mixed feelings toward taking her “brothers” out with a well placed head-shot. We never see any sort of internal struggle.

Capcom could have thrown the player for a loop by questioning why they’re murdering all these villagers obviously under some evil influence. In fact, the only time something like this comes up is when we encounter long-time RE mainstay Jill Valentine who has also become evil under some kind of malignant influence… But we plead with her, refrain from shooting her, then free her from her mental bonds. Why only her and not Sheva’s “brothers.” (I’m not going to go so far as saying it’s because she’s white and all the other people are black, but damn, Capcom doesn’t make it easy.)

Anyway, I’m calling bullshit. Capcom could have done so much more with this concept. Instead they delivered a typical, poorly cobbled together story many RE fans might consider sacrilegious.

All that said… The game is gorgeous. Especially the beginning part in the villages. Just beautiful.

I should remember to continue expecting more from the stories in games these days.

I’ve been looking for a new lamp for my work office for some time. Being the designy guy I am, I thought I’d stop by Design Within Reach and pick me up something fancy. The only problem, is that the place sucks. The people who work there suck. The rate at which they bring in new merchandise sucks. Basically, the whole shopping experience is terrible.

It starts when you walk in (my DWR is at the corner of 20th and Broadway) and no one working there can be bothered to even acknowledge your existence. This continues as you walk around. All the employees simply sit in front of their computers doing what appears to be completely nothing. Being that I was the only person in the store walking from lamp to lamp, you would have thought they might have given a shit, but nope. Lucky for me, there are only a couple of lamps stocked at DWR, so even though I was interested in the Tolomeo Mini Lamp, I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt the employees and their effort to avoid politely selling me a lamp.

Of course, this wasn’t my first time in this outpost of snobbery, so I was amazed that after a couple years, all the products carried hadn’t changed almost at all… and of course, neither had the sucky attitude.

I walked out…

…Down the street to A.I. Feedman and purchased the same damn lamp from a nice guy who chatted about motorcycles with me to help me understand why a chrome base costs so much.

I should remember to never bother with DWR.

Last April, I posted some Spring Flower desktop wallpapers to MyBestDesktops.com and they’ve become the most popular designs on the site. In the past few weeks their traffic and downloads have increased dramatically, so it seems like there’s a demand for some nice, flowery, desktop designs for Spring.

To help, I’ll be posting 5 new Spring desktop wallpapers over the course of the next 2 weeks. Hopefully, people will download them and the world will be a better place. Of course, the RSS feed would be the best way to stay up to date.

I need to remember to enjoy Spring as much as possible.

The sunrise over the beach in Tulum

Last year in May, the woman and I went down to Tulum, Mexico. It was perfect. We stayed in a tiny property called Casa Del Miel where we could lay around in the sun without anyone around. We drove inland to visit some Mayan ruins and swim in a cenote. And we ate lots of fantastic food in rustic, authentic restaurants like El Tábano and more fancy places like Hachizo.

Like I said, it was perfect.

So, this year, weary from some very busy weeks at work, we decided to relive that bit of perfection in a quick, long weekend trip.

Well, it wasn’t perfect. The property had ballooned from only 6 cabañas to double that, plus a large building for yoga, and a kitchen for food, and a reception area! All these things equal “child friendly.” Therefore, we had to contend with much more people and now children. There were other annoying signs of progress. Among them, the roads being much larger and now paved just didn’t feel as nice.

Anyway, I did have a fantastic long weekend in the sun, but I should remember the two things my woman said we’d learned on this trip: “never go back to somewhere you’ve had a perfect trip and Spring Break isn’t just for college kids.”

Update: That photo of the reflections on the beach is available as a desktop wallpaper at MyBestDesktops.com. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I had the pink cover...

I’ve been reading a lot of post apocolyptic books as of late for no discernable reason. The titles have simpy been the ones I’ve been interested in or found their way into my hands. Recently, I’ve read The Road by Cormac Mccarthy, The Possibilities of an Island by Michel Houellebecq, some other titles that allude me at the moment and now, I’ve just completed The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway.

Before I use the wrong words to describe the book, I should just start by reminding myself that this was a very good book… 512 pages of hardcover goodness.

If I had to compare it to some of my past favorites, I would have to say it’s a cross between Oryx and Crake (with its two men’s destinies locked in a seemingly endless struggle while the world ends around them) and Snow Crash (with his fantastically brash “I could give a shit about good writing” tone of voice and references to martial arts). That said, those are two books I really love, so if you smash them together, throw in some interesting twists and make the whole thing feel a little closer to a good blockbuster movie (not too much, mind you) you’ve got the fantastic read that is The Gone Away World.

Of course, many of the lady readers may not latch on to all the male centric issues it raises around relationships, but perhaps they’ll be able to see past that and simply relish the deeply satisfying story itself.

This being Nick’s first novel, I need to remember to check out his next. Especially since I loved the end of his acknowledgements where he wrote: “on to the next one.”

Nasty Canasta As Kobayashi Maru

I suppose I’ve known this for a long time—Ever since she did a strip tease to the tune of the Car Alarms Greatest Hits. But last night at Wassabasco’s first steady monthly show at Union Hall, Nasty Canasta managed to drive this point home with a number I hadn’t seen her do before. She comes out as a lamp, with tassels everywhere, a shade covering her face and a working light bulb. However, it’s not until she starts dancing out of her sultry lamp costume do you notice the detail that brings it all to life: a long cord reaching from off stage up into her… uhm… bum.

It’s genius.

After that number, she came on later to do another one of her insanely smart and inventive pieces. This one involves her being an extra sexy, hot pink plushy complete with fluffy suspenders and ends with her covered in sticky, bargain brand Pepto Bismol. I had seen this one before, but that didn’t make it any less awesome.

I was sad not to see Gi Gi LaFemme or Peekaboo Pointe last night, but Nasty certainly was a highlight of the evening.

I need to remember to check out Miss Canasta often.

(Photo by Monty Leman / JDWnyc)

So, after just a couple sessions of play, I managed to complete Killzone 2 yesterday. I have to admit, I had very high expectations for this game… So did everyone, I’d imagine.

Anyway, after the awe of the stunning graphics had set in and I began progressing through the game, I couldn’t help but feel like something big was missing. Basically, the first half of the game has practically no story at all. It’s run, shoot, shoot, run, shoot, listen to people curse like sailors, repeat. Luckily, the second half of the game does a good job getting me to begin caring for the characters and their world. And by the end, they really pull it together and go out on a high note.

Endings of second games in a series are notoriously unfulfilling. Many of these sequels build you up just to have a “finishing the fight” ending. We’ve seen it in God of War 2, Gears of War 2, and, of course, Halo 2 among others. But Killzone 2 is different. It’s ending is a true ending. No, it’s certainly not the end of the series, but you certainly walk away satisfied.

I should remember to try out Killzone 2′s online multiplayer…