Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is hands down the greatest iPhone app ever made. Essentially its a camera app with a bunch of filters in the form of different camera lenses, flashes and film which make your pictures come out as nice retro looking little squares. The pictures come up with a character and a depth that is can only be achieved with the cameras of the sixties, seventies and eighties. No high definition, super megapixel finery. It's sweet and to the point.

The interface is pretty sweet: a plastic camera with a view finder, a flash button and some other crap. The standard package comes with three lenses, a standard flash and two or three films. Three more "hipstapacks" are available for purchase and after buying those you now have an entire package with (by my count) 216 different combinations all for a total of $5.

All of this just so I can justify showing that kickass picture of me in my Ghost mask. Yes I bought a Ghost mask. It comes straight from the UK (you know just like Ghost) and is completely badass even without the sunglasses, beanie and headphones which would complete the look. We still miss you Ghost.

So This Happened

Seriously this is officially the worst kept secret ever. The leaked list of "new" characters appearing in Super Street Fighter IV has all but been proven to be true, with today's unofficial confirmation of Makoto, Dudley and Ibuki coming to the game that only leaves the "new Arab fighter" Hakan. Ummm ok, could they not have unveiled this officially some months ago?

I've talked about this before, many times, and if you follow the Street Fighter tag you'll notice that my tone has gone from incredibly excited to cautiously disappointed to just plain angry at the money grab. As far as the technical aspects go these three new characters look just as good as the previous releases and the original characters do. When Capcom decided on this character style they picked a winner and I'm glad they're sticking with it.

Loser of the Week: NBC and their fucked up Olympic coverage. Almost nothing is broadcast live (especially here in the West Coast, in the same time zone as the fucking Olympics!), they give the American public live figure skating however. Ugh figure skating? that's not actually sport, wheres the hockey? snowboarding? bobsledding? At least I got to see some live curling today.

RPG n' Poker

Sword & Poker is a game whose title gives me no choice but to believe that it was made by Chinese game developers. If this is indeed the case, and granted I am only one google search away from finding out, then we have lots to fear for because the Chinese have far surpassed us in ingenuity.

The game is so simple it makes me wish I had been brought up by an oppressive pseudo communist junta. A 5x5 grid in which cards are to be placed, two at a time with an initial setup of nine, in an effort to create poker hands. So lets say that the board currently has a Jack and two fives if you have another five and a jack you go ahead and place them and bam! full house.

Sure anybody could have thought of this (and I'm sure many folks have) but this game adds in tons of RPG elements that make it stand out from the detritus (thats the second time I've used that word since starting this blog btw) of card games across all gaming platforms. The player moves along dungeons full of baddies, he faces them in turn based combat and defeats them by getting good poker hands, depending on what the hand is is the amount of damage done: a single pair is weak while a straight, flush, straight flush or royal flush is the balls.

The player is able to purchase weapons, shields and other objects which help him (her?) along the way. Different weapons have different abilities and dish out different damage. You know like in any other decent RPG. There is a ton of strategy (from using magic to the ability to strategically pass your turn), the music is strangely reminiscent of early Zelda games and the art is top notch.

Overall its a nice little package whose ability to infuriate and frustrate is only surpassed by its ability to help pass the time while waiting on the bus and/or hospital waiting room.

A solid three golden apples out of four.

In other iPhone news: Capcom is releasing Street Fighter IV for the handheld system. No word yet as to what the fuck they are thinking.

Guile Gets Caught Committing Insurance Fraud

Via Unreality

Pokemon: The Next Generation

Kotaku has a story out today about the newest Pokemon (character, above) signaling the beginning of the new Pokemon (game, movie). This is now the FIFTH generation of Pokemon games and, probably, characters. While the last time I complained about the ever expansive nature of the franchise and yearned for the days of only 150 characters I have come to realize now that this is no longer being made for me so in reality who gives a flying fuck.

The whole situation reminded me of the Power Rangers franchise. One which I grew up with, thoroughly enjoyed and was soon disappointed with. Like with Pokemon my main problem was the move from the original characters to replacements which threatened the very show I loved. I was pissed off when three original rangers were replaced, little that I know that the reason they were being replaced was because they wanted more money.

I was also angry when the Might Morphin' Power Rangers became the Zeo (or whatever) Rangers. Again, little that I know that this was inevitable as the entire show was nothing more than a repurpose of a Japanese show that had been running for thirty years each year changing the costumes and even the protagonists. Had I known this maybe I would have been more inclined to roll with the punches, instead I ended up letting go of my obsession. Of course the fact that puberty was around the corner and I was attending a school with mandatory uniforms didn't hurt either.

But getting back to Pokemon: its now gotten to the point where not only myself but two or three other generations are just about over it yet it continues to thrive as one of Nintendo's most important franchises. The reason is obvious: it finds new markets (you know like capitalism has to necessarily do according to Marx), new kids to which to advertise and to give them something new they add new characters. This makes them feel special while simultaneously giving the older obsessive some more to obsess about.

Loser of the week: A little late on this but its Jim Caldwell. Congrats mate you lost the Superbowl while having the best quarterback in the history of the league on your team. That doesn't happen, it shouldn't happen, Peyton Manning only loses to the Chargers in the playoffs and with the Chargers out of the way you rode the easiest way to the big game possibly ever and you...become more conservative than George W. Bush in 2004 and call some horrible plays. You were up 10-0 go for the fucking jugular! but no, you let the nervous Saints back in and now its gonna be Mardi Gras all year long. Congrats man, you probably wont be back.

Picture Post 10

I've been on a real patriotic kick lately. Not sure if its because of my recent conversation to American citizenship or because I've been watching John Adams or because I've begun to appreciate a Sam Adams. So on to the military. We have the most badass military either because of or in spite of having a convoluted military industrial complex. Either way the real people who to go war are the soldiers and not the corporations, this here is one badass American soldier.

Inspired by or the inspiration for Ghost?

708 Words on Super Street Fighter IV

Some Super Street Fighter 4 updates.

Capcom has revealed the box art, some new character sketches, a release date and a ton more information about the upcoming title. The main theme of all these updates has been general disappointment. Nothing extraordinary is in the works, nothing that merits a $50 price tag for a "new" game which is made up mostly of "improvements" to an existing title. In other words so far it really does look like a money grab. Let's look at these things individually.

The new art is horrible. Yes I talked about it before, when it was first released and I was liking it at the time. But the stuff I've seen recently is beyond atrocious especially considering what the art for SF4 looked like or even what Udon is doing with the franchise. This new style, that looks like either pastels or cloth depending on how high you are, has no dynamism at all. There is no sense of action, of movement, the characters look bland, uninspired and deformed. By god look at what they did to poor Zangief!

This leads directly to the box art which is nothing more than a copy and paste of the previously mentioned character art. It's beyond boring, nothing is happening on that box. The Japanese and European boxes are a bit better but not great either, just simple photoshops of characters. They should have created something unique for the box instead of relying on clip art. How about a cover with just one character? and how about this: make that character NOT Ryu? if you insist on getting Cammy in there at all costs why not just give her the cover, or Guile, or fuck it take the SF4 cover and substitute Ryu and Ken for two of the new characters.

Speaking of new characters, nothing has been revealed since Adon, Cody and Guy and that was a few months ago. Last year even! We pretty much know that the other characters will be Dudley, Makoto, Ibuki and a new guy called Hakan. Here's the thing: I don't care for any of these. Honest. I've never played them, had they gone with a character I've actually used and mastered (Remy, Necro, Juli, Juni) I might actually be excited. And the new character? when I heard it was gonna be an Arab fighter I was way happy, then I saw what is possibly a picture of him and....its a guy in a gi. Another fucking guy in a gi? what makes him Arab? is it a special gi? Frustrating.

The other big thing: new ultras, new outfits. Some of these are gonna be great, Cammy in a tiny Bison outfit? yes please. Zangief as Colossus? of course! Dhalsim in traditional Brahmin garb? I'll take two. New ultras? also a plus but for someone who loves visuals and art as much as I do That's really a secondary bonus. The thing about it is these could have been downloadable! I would pay good money to see these costumes in Street Fighter 4. Hell I already did it once. The new characters could have been downloadable also, it would have been much more difficult to pull off sure but if Soul Calibur did it I'm sure Capcom can do it also.

See the main problem here is we're gonna be paying (a lot) of money for what amounts to DLC and a repurchase of the original game. There is not $50 worth of newbies in Super Street Fighter 4, that would be impossible. It's also not a new game yet they want me to spend the same money I spent for Modern Warfare 2. I don't fucking get it, is Ghost gonna be a playable character? I didn't think so.

So in the end: it'll be worth it once it trickles down to $15 on Amazon. Which is only fair because the announcement of this game made my SF4 worth about that much. I'm sure it'll sell like hotcakes to the rest of the Street Fighter nerds (my fellow nerds I should say) but I'm simply gonna have to pass (for now at least). There are too many good new games out there and this is merely good bonus content for a game I already own.