“Ooh, a dog suit!  That looks like the chicken suit from the last one!  I wonder how much that is,” I thought.  Then it got weird.

I selected it, and it showed me this:

One Microsoft Point.. I’m ON IT!  …wait, what?

Minus one point?  So it’s going to give me a point? 

Naturally, I’m gonna do it.  After clicking on “Download Now”, I got this completely bonkers error.

I worked this out. That many Microsoft Points equates to five billion dollars, or more specifically, $5,368,709,118.

…that dog suit probably has fleas, anyway.

I have a new IMDb photo on my profile. It’s one Neil Kellen took one day for me, in a panic, after realizing I had no photos to post on the “Reality” website.

November is going to be an expensive month, because it’s when a few different gadgets I’m wanting all come out around the same time.  I’m looking forward to the Kinect, the Samsung Focus and the latest Assassin’s Creed game.

I’ve been pretty darn terrible at updating here, and think I should probably turn back to my ridiculous image posting.  It always inspired me to sign in and update, so here’s today’s:

I had a blast playing the single-player mode, finding out about Sam Fisher’s latest adventure and the trouble he faced, saving the world and learning about the mystery of his daughter’s death.  It was exciting, well-written and compelling.  In fact, this might have been the most connected emotionally I’ve been to Sam.  Like a TV show or movie series you’ve watched for years, Sam & I had been through a lot together, and as the story unfolded, I was taken along for the ride.  I think Michael Ironside and the writers should be given giant raises for their work throughout the series.

I have a ton of fun playing the multiplayer co-operative modes, both the prologue to Sam’s story and the Deniable Ops, bite-size chunks adventures, featuring new-on-the-scene Archer & Kestrel.

The graphics are good.  The sound is good, other than Michael Ironside’s tinny-sounding voice clips this game.  He normally has such a more commanding voice in these games, in the same vein as James Earl Jones.  It just seems like something is off there (bad mixing, weird recording, etc).

I have always loved the Splinter Cell games, since the demo disc that Toys R Us handed out before the first game’s release nearly ten years ago.  Since playing that, I’ve never seen a game series get my attention or get me so immersed in the gameplay and storytelling as the Splinter Cell franchise. 

I played each of them repeatedly, honing my skills until I could get through each game rarely, if ever, getting detected.  I took pride in my ability to assess a situation and come up with the best possible course of action for either eliminating or avoiding any opposing force.  I don’t know that I’d set any records with my gameplay, but I was proud of my skills. 

This is what Splinter Cell: Conviction takes away from me:  my pride.

Playing Conviction requires a totally different skillset, a “run & gun” style more akin to Gears of War or Rainbow Six (which isn’t such a far stretch, seeing as how Maxime Beland, the game’s Creative Director, came over from the R6V team).  However, in an added twist that neither of those games even have, you can, at most points in the game, see through walls and mark bad guys with a little flag.  At that point, if you’ve earned an “execute token”, you can barge into the room, hit just one button, and automatically shoot and kill anyone you’ve flagged, up to three at a time (four, if you’ve upgraded a particular weapon).

No longer do I have to lurk in the shadows, watch enemy patrol routes, spot weaknesses in their defense and exploit them.  Now, I can just flag a few baddies from another room, bust in and hit the “win button”.

There’s a making-of video on Xbox Live and floating around the internet that has one of the most perplexing quotes I’d ever heard from a developer.  Sean Stanek, the game’s Scripted Events Director, said, “I love the old Splinter Cells, but it was time to kinda do something new.”  Wh…WHAT?  He likes them, so it’s time to change them?  What sort of message does that send to the fans?  “We know you like this… but we don’t care.”

What I hope is that this was a hiccup, a misstep on their adventure to making the next great Splinter Cell game.  While very fun in its own way, it doesn’t fit the genre I’d grown accustomed to and respected for this last third of my life.  Perhaps Ubisoft will see that though there’s no denying a group of gamers who require simpler, easier-to-master experiences, Splinter Cell fans aren’t part of that group.

I am a gamer who enjoys challenge, complexity and critical-thinking in some of my video games.  I understand the casual gamer is an appealing audience as well, and they can have most any other franchise they want.  Just don’t give them my Splinter Cell.

First off, the overall tone IS Splinter Cell, including the mood, writing, music, acting, etc.  I so far very much like the projection-style flashbacks and objectives.  It’s an interesting story-telling device I’ve never seen in a game.  The levels still seem dark, grimy and very tangible.

Sam is voiced again by Michael Ironside, who, in my opinion, is making it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to create a movie around Sam, since I don’t think there’s an actor around that could do that role justice.

I’m having trouble with a part of it, and I’m not sure whether it’s the gameplay or the control scheme.  I don’t mind the game moving in a different direction, since the plot is so different from the other games, but I’m very uneasy playing it, which I haven’t been since the FIRST Splinter Cell.  Sam’s moves haven’t changed for four straight games, so in trying to make Sam do some familiar things, like drawing his gun, or taking cover, I end up throwing a grenade or reloading my gun.  There’s always a learning curve to games like this, so it’s no big deal that I can’t IMMEDIATELY do what I want.  That happens with almost all games… except Splinter Cells, until now.

So I’m going to give it several more playthroughs to familiarize myself with the controls, and try and unlearn, or at least repress, my normal thought process of controlling Sam.  I’m looking VERY forward to the story and the co-op, so I can’t WAIT to get my hands on the full thing next month, and until then will practice up on this demo.

I paid for an outfit to make my Xbox Live avatar look like a character from a game series I like; Splinter Cell.  It wasn’t TOO bad a deal in the grand scheme of things, because I had $7 in free Microsoft Points (Microsoft’s virtual currency used to buy Xbox and Zune purchases) from buying shampoo and stuff from Target over the weekend.

I have no tangible media on which this content is sitting.  If Xbox Live’s servers break, I cannot access what I purchased.  In essence, I purchased a license for it, which I’m granted if Xbox Live’s servers are functioning properly (which to their credit is VERY reliable, barring last winter’s complete meltdown).

The concept of it is just blowing my mind as I sit here thinking about it.  Perhaps a nice thing about it is that the money I’ve spent on this content license is going to the developer, who in turn could make a potentially stronger product with my money.

I wish more things would do this promotion, like ‘Buy a Big Mac, get $1 in MS Points’. I know it’d only appeal to a limited market, but I’d wager they’d still draw that specific crowd out to make a lot of money. 

If you play Xbox, how much virtual money do you estimate you’ve spent on the service over the years?  Is there a way to tell?

By the way, I’ll keep try and keep this as spoiler-free as any trailer you’ve already seen. 

This movie ended up being somewhere around the first X-Men movie, not quite to X-Men 2 level, but far better than the third movie.  Like I thought, Hugh Jackman was good, but some of the story around him was equally good.  There is MUCH creative license with his origin. Had this been Spider-Man they were dinking with, I probably would have been more critical.  However, with Wolverine’s past, so much of it has been muddled with false memories, amnesia, his healing factor “healing” his brain from painful memories, brainwashing and so forth, that it’s hard to definitively nail down his past, even IN the comics.

It pretty action-packed, with a few slowdown parts to show that Wolverine has a heart.  That may be another sticking point with die-hards.  He seems to be VERY sympathetic in this movie (and the following ones).  From what I’ve read in the comics through the 80’s and 90’s, Wolverine was more apathetic and self-centered than this, but I understand that you’ve got to care about the guy.  Otherwise, why would some of your audience watch the movie?

The weakest part, as I’ve discussed with some other people familiar with the source material, is the expendability of some of the complimentary characters.  From what I’d read, Gambit was an afterthought added by the writers after realizing that they’ve skipped him in three movies already, and the fans wanted to see him.  But unless there’s some director’s cut, he’s SEVERELY underused, using his kinetic power MAYBE twice, never his hypnosis, and otherwise just being really good at fighting with a staff.

The weakest part of the entire storyline, and what I’m betting is the most upsetting to the fans, is what they do with Deadpool.  It’s very weak, and I wish they’d just created a new character to do what he does, but instead, I suppose for name recognition, they pulled in Deadpool.  The only positive of that is that it doesn’t take up much time in the story.

Overall, I think the movie was as fun to watch as its predecessors, and don’t understand all the bad press it’s getting.

Now, the second, bigger surprise was the game of the same name.  This game is incredible.  It’s not the same as many other movie tie-in titles, rushed out the door to make sure it’s there for kids to buy as soon as they leave the theater.  This game is a Wolverine game, that just happens to have some ties to the movie. 

In an interview with Major Nelson, Don Vondrak with Raven Software’s explained that after doing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, they wanted to make a mature Wolverine game, and it wasn’t until a way into development that they were approached for movie tie-in themes.  The game, which was already very violent, could have some tweaks made to the plot, and they could continue making the game they wanted to make.

Then, in another bit of rare game development, Vondrak said the game had been wrapped up in December of 2007, but after the movie was delayed, they were given an extra 12 months of development time, which they used to polish it into exactly the game they wanted.

I’ve played several hours into it, and I’m TOTALLY impressed.  There are already several story lines that have nothing to do with the film, so I feel like I’m really forging new ground with Wolverine. 

Also, the game maintained the hyper-violence most suited for the character, instead of being watered down to match the tone of the movie.  So you get a better sense of the Wolverine in the comics, that you’re actually leading down this cool path of his broken memories.

Another amazing feature of the game is this incredible physics engine they use to destroy and rebuild Wolverine’s body as he takes damage.  His body can be stripped of skin, then muscle, then down to just bone.  Then, it will slowly rebuild itself as you watch.  It’s REALLY fun to experiment with.  At one point, I had taken a shotgun blast to the head.  Half of Wolverine’s face was gone, and just his metal skeleton showed through, but slowly, muscle tissue regenerated over it, then skin, then hair.  It was WILD.

I really liked both, so it was a good weekend for geekery.

Do you like this one?  What trailers stick with you?