I’ve started and stopped like two articles since last week, getting a paragraph in and stopping because I felt like I was going from ‘amusing exasperation’ to ‘whiny raving.’ I did post a sketch with the intent of migrating it to the gallery, but I hit some kind of a snag processing the .png and kind of went ‘pfff’ to the whole thing for then.

My pals over at the former Manic Team have a new homepage that I added to the sidebar, it sounds like their homebrew beat-em-up is progressing pretty well in spite of another round of computer trouble. The Banzai Pecan-Chan project was already rebooted from scratch once, coming back with higher-res sprites and what’s sounding like a promising new brawling engine.

Random TV Based Aside: So uh. Holy shit, Totally Spies got a spin-off.

I’ve been on a pretty sizable Kawamori kick lately, plowing through Macross Ultimate Frontier again and taking up Armored Core 4, another installment of that series that’s really cool when it first comes out then promptly gets a $12.99 sticker when the expansion pack-slash-sequel comes out. Normally when I play stuff on the PS3, I’m cynically scoffing about how easily something or another could have been done on the PS2, but the pressure-sensitive shoulder buttons actually do add a lot to the gameplay. Your boost actually works something like a real gas pedal now, allowing you to keep up a slow, constant burn and increase your overall agility instead of the usual zoom til your energy empties, tromp around a little, then zoom again mechanic. I also appreciate them getting rid of the heat gauge, because that shit was annoying enough when they did it in MechWarrior. 2 was alright, 3 was pretty good, but AC4 is the first one I’ve really clicked with, as opposed to “Well, this is the mech game other people actually play, maybe I can get a match in some time.” Which is also the only reason I play Marvel vs Capcom 2, which as neato-keen as watching Gambit fight Mega Man is, it feels like riding on a giant anaconda as it goes into violent seizures, and trying to steer its panicked fleeing with punches. And god damn, if I probably won’t end up playing MvC3 for the exact same reasons. And Deadpool.

Deadpool rocks.

Coming soon: A review I’ve been putting off for the better part of a year.