Phil Spector produced some of the best music of the twentieth century, including one of a handful of bearable Christmas albums in existence. Also he’s a fucking murderer. So… bit of a mixed bag, there.

I kind of think that Lovecraft was doing about the least-worst thing he could with his absolutely massive trove of neuroses and phobias, which definitely included racism and xenophobia.

He was convinced that the universe was chaotic and horrifying and that the only thing we could hold on to for stability was racial purity, and that’s pretty fucked up, but he turned those feelings into spooky stories about interdimensional space monsters, which is certainly a lot better than writing political tracts or trying to convince everyone that the Armenians are actually to blame for all of our problems.

Therapy would have been even better, but writing spooky stories was better than some of the very real alternatives that other people were exploring in the 19-teens and twenties.

Hades is a great example of this. You start out as the son of Hades, lord of the underworld. You want to escape his realm, so you try to fight your way out. Along the way, you will die and fail, and you just get sent back down to your father’s house, and he gives you a bit of a hard time about how weak and ineffectual you are.

The plot unfolds as you interact with various gods and other figures in the underworld, over the course of your many attempts. Saving and reloading isn’t really a thing, as such, but the plot continues to unfold, even as you die over and over over and over.

Edit:

This is a great time for me to rave about how much I love the storytelling in Hades. In a book or in a totally linear game, the story looks like this:

You start at the beginning, you proceed directly to the end. You have no choices in how the plot progresses. This is fine in a book, and I’m sure there are some games where it works okay, too.

Most games with “choices” go like this:

You might make a few choices, but a lot of them either end in a false ending or take you right back to the ending that the writers planned all along. It can give the illusion of meaningful choice, but it can also start to feel hollow once you see where the railroad tracks are.

Hades works like this:

All of the characters in the game (and there are a lot of them) have their own linear plot that is unfolding as you play the game, and you are learning about any one of them at any given time. You don’t have many meaningful choices to make, but it still reads as a very compelling plot because all of your interactions deepen your relationship with each character in turn. It saves us all from the fake choices that a lot of games stick us with. It’s genius.

Goku was burning through a Type II Kardshev civilization’s worth of energy. He was hongry. Flavor was definitely secondary.

Make a Home Alone sequel with grown up Kevin gaining access to a time machine and running through the events of the first two movies, Back to the Future Part II style.

This dude should be in big fucking trouble for either not knowing or not caring what the Posse Comitatus is.

“I need you to prove that you’re bi.”

[produces ticket stub]

“Fuck, that’s good proof.”

Edit:

2000 United States presidential election in Florida

After an intense recount process and the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, Bush won Florida’s electoral votes by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast (0.009%) and, as a result, became the president-elect.

I lived through this, and to this day when people say that voting doesn’t matter, it makes my hair stand on end.

ReBoot had a ton of these, but I’d really like to play the Mad Max-inspired racing game where cars range from the size of go-karts to armored semi trucks and 747 front ends mounted on tank treads.

Also, not a fake game, but a fake game accessory, I’d like to play with the Nintendo Power Glove from the movie The Wizard that is actually good and enjoyable to use.

Global Thermonuclear War exists in the form of DEFCON.

Wwweeeelllllll…

As ever:

Avalanches, Since I Left You

I was deeply confused to see a bunch of Ferraris outside of some huge institution in the middle of Providence, Rhode Island. Take a high performance vehicle and put it in the most tightly packed, narrow, curvy-street urban area in America with the possible exception of Boston. Why don’t you go ahead and take a snowmobile to Hawaii, while you’re at it.

“Who’s Gonald Trimp?”

I had a quiet night to myself so I thought I’d crack open the copy of Samurai Shodown on my shelf that I’ve been staring at for a few years. I played some Shodown back in my ZSNES days, I bet I can dust off the old skills!

So anyway, three matches in and the computer has so thoroughly whipped me that I think maybe I could use a slightly more relaxing pace of game.

So I open up the copy of Metal Slug XX on my shelf that I’ve been staring at for a few years. I played some Metal Slug back in my ZSNES days, I bet I can dust off the old skills!

So anyway, a couple of levels in and the computer has so thoroughly whipped me that I decide to fall back to good ol’ Broforce. Nice relaxing Broforce…

The Dreamcast controller is ugly as sin but surprisingly comfortable to hold. It must have the widest delta between looks and ergonomics of any controller.