A Lost Jem from the Past....

I was floundering around through some of the more creative writings in my computer files and came across this one.  It's the beginning of an article i was writing for a free press paper that a fellow mad genius ran.  It never got published due to the fact that the paper went under.  Go figure.  But, I decided to post the introduction of the article I never finished since I actually think it doesn't suck as much as what I usually post here.  Enjoy....

The Layman’s Guide to Role Playing Games.

Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime in the span of a misspent Saturday night!

So, you say that you’re getting tired of going out every Saturday night and drinking, partying, schmoozing with the opposite sex and cramming too much craziness into the evening.  Well, I got an idea that will certainly put the old’ kibosh on that!  How about an evening of getting together with a bunch of friends, sitting together at a big table in someone’s basement and breaking out the pencils, paper and 20 sided dice, for a good old session of Role Playing Game (or RPG for those not “in the know”)?

Many of you fine readers may be scratching your head, asking yourselves, “Just how is playing a nerd’s game going to benefit me?”

Well, let me ask you, isn’t there the slightest fragment of your imagination that has a yearning to be stroked?  (Insert self gratification joke here ________________.)  I believe that there’s some form of child-like exuberance locked up in everyone of us that needs to break out from time to time.  Somewhere, out in the city, there’s a stock broker wondering if the Dow Jones is going to pick up, if his portfolio could improve and if his Paladin will be able to thwart the evil sorcerer, Dothlock with his +7 Sword of Eternal Holiness.  Trust me.  There’s a little of the fantastical welling up inside of you whether you know it or not.

So allow me to give you a quick synopsis of the world of Role Playing Games.

The whole idea of RPG’s are to be able to still play games like Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Nurse Sasha and the Bad Patient and other imaginative games without running around with toy guns, plastic bows and arrows or latex and wet-naps. 

Instead, you and other players are seated at a table with your character sheet in front of you, pencil in hand and dice at the ready.  One of the players will be the Game Master (or GM), also know as a Dungeon Master (DM), a Storyteller, a Marshal, a Head Honcho or whatever the particular RPG your playing refers to them as.  Just don’t refer to them as “the jerk-knocker who killed off my Halfling mage”.  That doesn’t go over too well in most conversations.

The GM is the one who describes what is going on in whatever imaginary world you are playing in.  When the GM prompts you to obtain a certain goal, you will role a particular sided dice (in most games it’s a 20 sided dice, pending the rules and system of that game) and the dice will tell you if you succeed or failed in your attempt.  There’s much more to it than what I’ve described, but I’m writing an article, here!  Not authoring a core rule book fer crissakes!!

Well there you go.  Have a nice day!

Zangz.

Zangz's: The Grumpy Old Man

I have to admit that I'm feeling quite the old curmudgeon as of late. I've had this on my mind for a spell now and at the threat of sounding just like the oldsters I saw in my youth as middle aged grumps, I'll post it here for the 1.5 people that read this blog.

I was a child of the '70's. Our parents didn't have to strap us down in car seats until we were 12 years old. We would tool around the neighborhood on our big wheels, unsupervised at all hours of the day and usually into the evenings. We rode on bicycles without big white, goofy looking helmets. Our TV shows were Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood and Saturday morning cartoons. Neither of which were crappy anime or half hour commercials for toy lines.

Despite all of that, I look back at my generation and think we had it damn good. Despite being teased unmercifully by the bullies of my grade school, I look back at my childhood and remember how much of it I enjoyed.

Now here comes the "kids today" part that will age me greatly.

I'm finding that the generations that are teens and young adults now are, quite simply, a bunch of A-Holes.

There's a Machiavellian and quite shallow nature about them which makes me worry for the future. It's as though they are already getting into the corporate American groove of greed and apathy.

Not only are these kids being pampered and spoiled, their attitudes are becoming more and more expectant and entitled.

These kids are not being brought up with TV shows like Scooby-Doo or The Superfriends where the message of fighting evil and helping your fellow man were present. They're being brain washed by horrible reality show stars that make acting drunk and obnoxious will thrust you to fame and fortune.. Hey kids, you'll be rewarded for rotten behavior. Just watch Snookie!

Kids haven't been going outside to play with action figures for years. Instead they go online and play some multiplayer combat game where they toss out racial slurs and homophobic insults at each other and people they never met. This behavior isn't a rarity, it's the norm.

These bent and broken values seem prevalent in the young adults of today as well. I live in a part of town where there are scads of "twenty something's". They are young, privileged people who find it perfectly acceptable to be rude or at least stand offish as much as possible. They are far quicker to become belligerent when met with conflict than try and work things out.

I'm really hoping I'm just being an old out of touch grump and there truly is hope for the coming generations. I've been an uncle for over a year now and I delight in it as much as I can. Right now my niece, Lil' G, is in a constant state of wonderment and exploration of her environment and surroundings. She is a long way from being exposed to a lot of the shallowness of youth. I'm hoping to god that she'll be smart enough to steer clear of it, not get caught up in it or be victimized by it.

There are a lot of wonderful teachers and parents out there that are trying to intercept the attitude problems at earlier ages. Cheers to them. Let's hope it's not too late.


In other news....

Happy Father's Day all of you Father's our there! My friend Roberto got a wonderful gift from his daughter yesterday. A build a zombie action figure where one can customize and create their own zombie action figure! How flippin' cool is that? I guess there are little hints of hope for the coming generations.

Also, I had the fun experience of playing a new, fun, very adult oriented card game called Cards Against Humanity. If you have a dark and twisted, dirty mind, this game is just for you. I think I enjoyed it even more than Munchkin.

That'll be it for this time. Until next time, GETTHEHELLOFFMYLAWNYOUDAMNKIDS!!!!

Zangz.

A spoilerific blog post of my anticipation of Skyfall

I have two warnings for this particular post.

#1.  As the title of the post infers, there may be some serious spoilers within this post.  If you don't want to know a darn thing about the next, highly anticipated James Bond movie, Skyfall, due in theaters in early November, then you may not want to venture any further after the link to the trailer.

#2.  If you choose to accept, I have two assignments for you to complete before I go on with my post.


So the first assignment starts below.  View the UK trailer for Skyfall as many times as your geeklovin' heart contends...

Now that you've watched it four or five times visit the link posted below (WARNING: Possible SPOILERS abound as the author of this post breaks down the trailer you just watched and guesses at major plot points of the film.  One plot point might be a biggin'!  If this event does happen in the film, it will blow our collective minds!  You have been warned!  Click at your own discretion)......

CommanderBond.net's Skyfall teaser trailer breakdown.

Now I will interject my own thoughts on the trailer you just viewed and article which you just read.  Not that my thoughts are worth a hill of beans.  I do this for my own amusement.  What the frell?!?!  

This portion is also spoiler loaded.  (Scroll down to read since Blogger will not allow me to black it out so you can highlight it to read. (????)  Sorry, blame Blogger.)

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1....

Being a huge Bond fan, I was elated when I heard that Sony and MGM ended their legal issues and went head first into preproduction of the delayed 23rd James Bond movie, Skyfall.  As usual, I promised myself that I didn't want to know a damned thing about the story or plot of the film before I saw it on the big screen this November.

Well, that fell through as I subscribed to the official James Bond YouTube channel and Facebooked them as well.  I can't help myself.  They've just concluded principal photography for the film and news is starting to leak out.

At first viewing of the trailer when it was released on the masses a few weeks ago, I thought it was a real classy, slick, artistic view of things to come.  But, it didn't really reveal too much of what the hell was going in the film.  Or so I ignorantly thought.

When I came across the above article, it revealed some pretty heavy revelations that could go down in this film.

Let's start with the title itself, "Skyfall".  There is a scene where Bond is taking a psychological, word association test.  When the term "Skyfall" comes up, Bond turns sullen and ends the test abruptly.  I originally thought the title was some sort of weapon that was gleaned from the old days of the Bond movies where there was some sort of satellite weapon aimed at the earth's surface by some terrorist organization that was holding the world at ransom.  After reading the article I believe Skyfall to possibly some sort of important reference to Bond's  deceased parents.

In the books and some of the movies, it is revealed that Bond's mom and dad, who died in a mysterious "mountain climbing accident"when Bond was a child, may have had some sort of dealings with the British secret service in the past.  Their deaths are mentioned in one or tow of the movies and their involvement with MI6 is mentioned somewhere in the literature.  It's all very brief, which gives the writers of the movie to get in there and dig deep and create a real background for his late parents.

In the article, there is a building that will play a major part in the film that is called "Skyfall Lodge".  Is this Bond's childhood home?  Is this why it hits such a nerve when it is mentioned to Bond?  I know the lodge will become a major set piece for a huge action sequence in the film.  Possibly the grand crescendo to the film itself.  What will take place there?  Will everybody get out alive?

That's the big question the linked article brings up.

This leads me to my next assumption of the movie.  I'm thinking that a huge character we Bond fans have all grown to know and love will be 86'd in this film.

Now if you've scrolled down to read, scroll down further to read this if think you can take it....  venture downward........

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From what I've read in the posted article, I sadly believe that Dame Judy Dench's "M" may be killed off in Skyfall.  If you have the article still up on-line in another tab or window, scroll down to the seventh teaser image where Ralph Fiennes is looking at Dench's M.  If you read the text below you may see where this is all going.  If Dench is out for the 4th Daniel Craig Bond film, old Voldermort could fit the bill of a decent conservative, stogy, "M" that could harken back to the older movies.  But it would lose a lot of heart that Dench brought to the character.

Now why in the hell would the producers of the Bond flicks be giving Judy Dench, the woman who single handedly rebooted the character of "M", the heave-ho?  I don't think it's entirely their decision.

I've heard a rumor that Dame Judy Dench has been dealing with some very serious eye conditions where her sight is slowly, but surely failing her.  She may be settling down from the acting world and thus leaving the James Bond films for good.  A horrible scenario, but it would fit the puzzle pieces together.

Now this is all conjecture and guesswork form myself based on the article, based on the trailer itself.  No one, outside of the people who worked on the film, will know the truth until November of this year.  We could all be terribly wrong and Dench would be in this thing for another number of years.  Either way, it's going to be one hell of a thrill ride this November!

Zangz.

The Geekification of YouTube

It was bound to happen.  Digital media has become a constant in geek and genre entertainment.  Look at any social social interaction on the web, like Facebook and Google+, and you'll find a abundance of fantasy, horror, sci-fi groups and clubs that offer all sorts of material to allow ourselves to fall into the wonders of Geek Culture.

The "post it yourself" social media web page, YouTube is no different.  Since it's inception, fan boys and girls have been flooding the page with oodles of content.  From Fan-films to video blogging to documentary shorts on comic conventions, you can find yourself lost for day's going through an endless treasure trove of cool as heck content.

YouTube has yet to be completely corporatized or censored by doo-gooding parental groups of purificationists.  YouTube realizes that geeks are made up of mostly mature adults where our minds won't melt if there's a bit of mature language used.  So now is the time to jump in and have a looksie if you haven't yet.

Let me help you get started.  I've picked out of few of my favorite YouTube content providers (or YouTube Channels as they're referred to).  Now, before you start viewing, there's something you need to keep in mind.  As I just mentioned, these channels are geared for adults, so if you have little ears and eyes close by......... for crissakes, put them back in the shoebox in the crawlspace!!!  But, seriously folks.  These channels are for adults.

That being said, here we go.  I'll give you a link to the channel, a review of it and then a little sampler plate of a couple of video's they provide.


The Nerdist Channel

Founded by stand up comedian / actor, Chris Hardwick, the Nerdist YouTube channel is the perfect compliment to his already established network of Podcasts, which I blogged about quite a while ago.  One of the great things about anything Nerdist related is that it doesn't restrict itself to just the genres of nerdom.  Sure there's a good dose of a love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but it also aims itself at pop culture in general.  Some of my favorite shows are posted below.

How much cooler is bowling with the cast and creator of The Walking Dead?  Not very frackin' much!

If you love the fan based, movie review website, Ain't-It-Cool-News, here's it's founder's own web show.  God this kid loves movies.

Here's a wonderful round table discussion of all things geeky with a special guest star every week. 

There's also shows with Weird Al Yankovic and one that specializes in Cos-Play at conventions.  Apparently they are also planning a Fangoria show with Anthrax's Scott Ian  Definitely a channel to keep you eyes on.

Next up is a channel that I tripped upon when I was looking for reviews on the video game, Red Dead Redemption.

3KB

This import from Canada features three fans of video games and movies who review them on an ongoing basis.  I enjoy their humor and camaraderie and their creativity to put something like this together.

My introduction to 3KB.

Their review of the best movie this summer so far.

Here's one where they have the main voice actor from the video game actually play the game with them.  Cool concept.

Geek and Sundry

Geek icon, Felicia Day, has been a pioneer in online geek content with her on-line show The Guild for some time now.  At YouTube she has her own channel where many a wondrous, geekesque related show can be viewed.

A show where they feature guest stars playing famous, geeky table top games hosted by Wil Wheaton? YES, PLEASE!  This episode features one of the greatest TV scriptwriters of our time!  Jane Espenson.

Miss Day's own personal video blog.  Is it kinda lame for me to post the episode where she poses in cute Steampunk outfits?  Methinks not!

A YouTube, online Fantasy book club where there are book reviews and interviews with the authors themselves.  If I were more of a literary genre geek, I'd be all over it like a bad rash.

I may let you know of a few more in another post coming up.  Right now I have to partake in a Memorial Day cookout.  So until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

GEEKS, NERDS AND FAN BOYS, ASSEMBLE!

I've had a nice little hiatus from posting here, but my creative juices are screaming for an outlet lately so I'm finally driven to post something.

The main subject that has scooped me up and out of my general imaginative and creative malaise recently was the viewing of the insanely anticipated, Joss Whedon helmed super-hero movie, Marvel's The Avengers.

This movie had every indication of not sucking.  A wonderfully mixed cocktail that includes Mr. Whedon, the man who created and wrote some of the greatest genre TV (Buffy, Firefly and Dollhouse, to name a few) as not only the director, but also the writer.  Then put a half of glass of one of the most famous super teams to ever grace the pages of comic books.  Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye under the comand of Nick Fury.  Then add one shot of great actors reprising their rolls from the previous Marvel, super hero films that had already made a big impact within the geek community.  Mix and stir and put a pickle in it and you have a cocktail full of geek magic.

The hype for this movie was so insane that it put the project on pedestal of such a great hight that any sort of failure would not be an option.  This had me a bit worried.

As we all anticipated the coming of The Avengers, an example that I was given at one time about another film project that had all the makings of a great picture, kept running through my mind.

Here was the original pitch on that other "can't miss" movie....

• From the mind of author Michael Crichton
• From the people that brought you, "Raiders of the Lost Arc", "Back to the Future", "Poltergeist", The Color Purple", "Cape Fear" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
• Special Effects by Stan Winston.
• A summer blockbuster, action adventure!
• Starring Man-God, BRUCE CAMPBELL!

And that film turned out to be..... CONGO

This proves the point that you may have all the wonderful pieces in place, but you still have to know how to move them.

So with a little trepidation, I took Friday afternoon off and went to see "Marvel's The Avengers".  After one initial viewing I can most certainly say that Mr. Whedon definitely knows how to move his pieces!

Back in my $30 to $90 dollar a week comic book addiction days, I was a DC Comics kind of guy  (despite the fact that their new logo kind of blows).  I've always leaned more toward the darker side of comic stories.  Batman and DC's Vertigo Comics imprint were always more compelling than, what I saw as, the Disneyesque, soap opera driven Marvel universe.  That's not to say I had any dislike for the Marvel super heros.  I've always appreciated Stan Lee and what his Marvel Comics brought to geekdom.

So every time a new Marvel super hero movie comes out, I find myself excited, but not to the point of fan boy craziness.  But, after seeing this movie, I probably should have been fan boy crazy after all.  I'm not sure if it was because I controlled my hopes and dreams before I saw it, but this movie kicked my ass eight ways to Sunday!  I loved the hell out of this flick!

There is one main reason, one person, who is responsible for this.  Joss F*#KING Whedon!

Sure, you can have your all star cast and your uber-awesome 3D effects and great action intense set pieces, but it won't mean a frackin' thing unless you have a great visionary guiding the story and characters.

This movie would have been just another big budget summer blockbuster that could have come out and had its two weeks at the top and then disappeared only to find limited success on DVD and Blu-Ray like many, many other summer blockbusters (let's see how "Battleship" does).  But Avengers has something that other blockbusters don't.  It has heart.

Let's face it.  The story-line itself is pretty basic and standard Avengers comic book fare.  Thor's God-Like evil brother, Loki, decides to seek revenge on Thor by using a intergalactic portal opening weapon and employs an alien army to try and destroy the earth.  Nick Fury and his secret service organization called S.H.E.I.L.D. bring the super heros together to help save the earth.  Not anything comic book geeks aren't used to in the Marvel universe.  Been there, done that, got the shirt several times.

But, somehow it is made fresh and new.

The first and foremost thing I love about this movie is the characterization, something Mr. Whedon has a crazy gift for, as anyone would know if they've ever watched the second greatest TV show ever, Firefly (Deadwood is the first, just sayin').  He has a love for the characters in his projects and it shows in his passion for the material.

Whedon magically takes each and every super hero and gives them their own place and story and time on screen that doesn't take away from any one of the team at all.  He brings in the feel from each of the previous super hero movies without ostracizing any of the characters.  There are a couple of characters I would have liked to have seen a little more of, but it doesn't deter from the sotry at all.  I'll get to those characters later.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) feels just like the Iron Man from the previous Iron Man films.  The same can be said for both Thor and Captain America.  They're the same characters we loved form their own films without being compromised or changed to fit the team up.

And the new Hulk / David Banner actor, Mark Ruffalo, fits in wonderfully as the soft spoken, somewhat troubled yet still caring scientist who turns into everyones favorite big, green raging machine.  Bixby would be proud.

It's the writing for each of the characters, including Banner's that makes this film stand out from the other Marvel super hero films.

It's wonderful watching how these characters interact and react to each other.  The dialog between them is something Marvel fans will absolutely love and adore.  Sure, there are the huge fights against each other that are staples of the comics that are pretty grandiose and visually impacting.  But, it's the quieter moments with each other that give the film heart.  The viewer gets to feel out the newly assembled super team as much as they feel each other out also.  That's the magic of Whedon.

There's also a fair amount of humor in the film that is nicely peppered throughout that makes our heros a little more human.  There's a scene between Hulk and Loki toward the end that is pure awesomeness.  HULK SMASH, indeed.

As for the action sequences and visual effects, of coarse they're going to bring it full throttle!  There's tons of action, explosions and crazy ass damage all over the place.  A geek's visual smorgasbord.

During my viewing of the film, I enjoyed every minute of it.  After having time to think about it, I could have had a little more emphasis on the characters of Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury.

Though Hawkeye played a pivotal roll in the film, he was somewhat still in the background.  If I were an uber-comic nerd I would have had more of an issue with his costume.  Having a black leather suit with purple highlights and no mask might seem hot and trendy for Hollywood, but THIS....

...is what Hawkeye looks like.  Why is Hollywood so afraid to put their super heros in masks?  Is Captain America the only one who gets mask time?

Black Widow certainly had a lot of cool scenes.  But, for some reason, I felt there was something missing from the character.  She needed more than to look hot in skin tight outfits.  And Nick Fury was originally looked upon as a bad-ass character who was going to whoopass and take names later.  Partially because the role was played by Samuel L. Jackson.  But, his character ends up doing a little ass kicking and more commanding and giving orders from the bridge of his secret air ship while the heros do the muscle work.

Admittedly those were the typical paltry, geek gripes that in no way, shape or form deter from the awesomeness of this movie!

In closing I'll raise a frosty Schlitz Tall Boy in the air and salute one Joss Whedon, for taking this beloved comic and its characters and giving them a wonderful send up that I hope many Whedon directed and written sequels will will come from!

ALL HAIL JOSS WEHDON, MAN-GOD OF THE AGES!

Zangz.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(Marvel_Comics)

There Be Dragons Here!

Just what has been occupying my time since Halloween, you may be asking? The severe lack of posts are not due to the usual lack of inspiration this time around.

Truth be told, I've been spending an ungodly amount of my time within a fantasy world where Dragons have returned, knights in shinning amour have given way to viking warriors and where ancient undead soldiers spend time lurking about in forgotten tombs and are just waiting for an ass-whoopin'.

If you've had your video game playing head in the sand for the last month you'd know I'm talking about the most ambitious, open world, role playing game to possibly ever grace counsel gaming systems.

On 11/11/11 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released to the masses. And you can bet you're sword wielding, potion poppin', amour wearing, sweet behinds that yours truly was in his local Gamestop at midnight to get his little paws all over this masterpiece.

Granted, I was probably the oldest geek in the place. No matter! I got my copy in a short period of time and tore back home to my apartment and popped that wonderful little disc into my '360 and sat in a state of mad anticipation!

The intro was very short and sweet and the next thing I knew I was being led into the story head first. Soon after I was working on the intricate character creation system. Then as soon as the introductory part of the story was over and the game let me decided what I wanted to do next, I found myself wandering the huge and beautiful landscapes.......

Once I actually looked at the clock and realized it was 5 AM I decided to take a short nap . I had wisely taken that Friday off from work and found myself up by 10 AM and back at the game. Since then I have taken advantage of the cold, gloomy and dark atmosphere that has seemed to curse the subsequent winter weekends and found a plethora of time to clock in at least 48 hours of the game. It being and open world, sandbox game, I found it very easy to do.

So what do I think of it?

One of the BEST GAMES I'VE EVER PLAYED!

Keep in mind, I'm an oldster. My first game system was a big red plastic box that you connected to your UHF atenea to play Pong. So I've been playing for a while and I can honestly say that this game has blown a few of my all times faves out of their places in the pantheon that is Zangz's All Time Favorite Video Games.

I have yet to reach the end of the main quest and story for the game, but have logged in more than enough hours to be able to give a decent review.

The main story revolves around you arriving in this Norse mythology influenced fantasy realm as a prisoner who was captured trying to illegally cross the border into the Northern most realm of the Elder Scrolls fantasy world know as Skyrim. You're cuffed and in a wagon with other prisoners being taken to your execution that is take part in a small town. As your head is being laid on the chopping block, all hell breaks loose as a dragon attacks and destroys the town. Once you escape the destruction the world is your oyster.

You can pursue the main story quest and find out why long extinct dragons have returned to the world and what major part you play in it. Or you can do whateverhellyouwantto! It's all your choice.

I found myself spending hours traveling the roads and reveling in the majesty and beauty of the Skyrim world before I took on any of either the main or side quests. There's almost too much to do and explore in this world.

There are hundreds of places to check out. Whether it be burial tombs, caves, ancient dwarven ruins, keeps, bandit forts, small townships and extravagant cities, there's hundreds of places to search, loads of people to interact with, take on dangers, loot treasure chests and look for cool-as-heck magical items. Almost each and every place you come upon, your jaw will drop at its beauty. The whole world is definitely seeped in fantastical artistry.

The game keeps you busy. I've been biding my time with the main quest, taking it in a little at a time so I don't blow through it too quickly. Luckily I've been keeping busy with the multitude of side quests that are provided for you in the game. Holy crap, there are a lot!! There are the main quest missions, then each city and township has its own set of quests for you, then there are the factions and political parties you can join who have a bunch of quests for you. AND THEN there are bunch of side and miscellaneous quest you can randomly come upon. It's mind blowing!!!!

You can take a gander at the gameplay right HERE!

They've also made the combat and magic systems much easier than any of the previous Elder Scrolls games. You don't have to be a hard core RPG geek to get the hang of how to manipulate and use your inventory.

In past Elder Scrolls games, I've played as a brute warrior with a penchant for hack'n'slash gameplay. This time around I've found it easy enough to play as a combo warrior / thief-esque / assassin type character without having to dick around too much with a complicated interface. You build up the stats from what you actually do in the game. You don't have to worry about wondering where to allocate a ton of skill points into. The game pretty much does it for you per how you like to play. Every time you level up you only have to worry about putting points into three (count 'em THREE) attributes and then only one point into a skill.

Do you want to be a bad-ass warrior? You can do that! Do you and to be sneaky thief? You can do that! Do you want to play as a powerful mage? You can do that! Do you want to play as all of the above? You can do that! Do you want to play as a little bit more of the above and a little bit less of the above? You can do that! They've really taken the whole sandbox gameplay ideal and applied it to RPG mechanics with little confusion for the player.

Here's a quick video on the gameplay mechanics of the game.

The world itself is an organic (over used annoying word alert!) living world where characters live their lives day to day despite your existence in it. Time moves on no mater what you do or don't do. Here's a time laps look at one of the cites in the game.

I could go on and on and on with what makes this game so frackin' awesome I'd be typing this post all night. Suffice it to say, this is one of the best gaming experiences I've had since Grand Theft Auto III came out or the time I first discovered Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. You may be asking yourself, "Does he think that there is anything is wrong with it?"

I've only run across a couple of things that slightly irk me.

First, I notice that once you discover and clear out a dungeon, cave, fort, whatever, that the enemies within don't regenerate if you revisit that same place later in the game. In Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion, a short time after you cleared a place you could go back in and still go after baddies while looting treasures. This doesn't seem to be the case in Skyrim. That could kill a little of the replay value that the Elder Scrolls games pride themselves for. I have to play through a lot more of the game to see if these dungeons are revisit-able, but right now it's looking like once you complete a dungeon, it's just an empty dungeon.

The net has been afire with a lot of criticisms of a lot of the major glitches that can plague the game. We all know that these Elder Scrolls games are so incredibly huge it is hard for developers, Bethesda, to catch all of the glitches before release time. In fact, in the past, some of these glitches are kind of amusing and endearing to a lot of us. This game, however, has a little too much of them and in some cases can make a quest incomplete. I came across such a quest where I was to collect three separate necklaces in three separate dungeons. I made the mistake of forgetting to grab the necklace off of the first dungeon boss in the first dungeon. When I returned much later on in the game to collect the necklace off the the carcass of the undead viking warrior, he was gone and the quest arrow telling me where the location of the necklace was pointing at the empty ground where the necklace should have been. So I couldn't complete the quest. Bummer!

Do these faults ruin the game? Hell no!!! The game is still a wonder to behold!

Lift up your cups or grog to the people at Bethesda Games who have created one of the top video gaming experiences that I have ever had the pleasure!!!!

For Xmas this year get you loved ones this game! They won't be disappointed..... unless they wer born without a soul.

Zangz.

Halloween Has Arrived....

"While most foolish others treated it like any other Monday, Erasmus Burke stayed at home this Halloween. The day prior he spent boarding up the doors and windows of his little house as best he could, locking himself inside, making sure there was no way anybody or anything could make their way inside either by accident or by force.

The outside world viewed Erasmus as an odd little man. A loner who lived on the corner of one of the oldest graveyards of the city. It was his job to maintain the grounds and prepare the graves for incoming.....residents.

In recent months, during his daily duties in the graveyard, odd things started to transpire. At first it started as a slight whisper coming from nowhere in particular. Erasmus would dismiss it as the wind through the trees or the rustling of leaves on the ground. But, as time went on, the disembodied voice grew to several voices. They also became more clearer. Their message was one of their return from the grave to seek vengeance on the living this coming Halloween.

Erasmus took these warnings to heart. Prior to sealing off his doors and windows he lit the Jack-O-Lanterns on his front porch. These were the only way a house could be marked as safe from the ghouls that would soon be floating about the living world. At least, that's what the dead had told Erasmus. He'd seen a thing or two during his long tenure at the graveyard that proved the fact that you should never turn your back on the dead. So he readied his home for the oncoming resurrection of the dead.

The final plank against the door was nailed shut an hour before midnight on October 30th. Erasmus then turned off all of the lights and

Erasmus dove under the covers with minutes to spare with his head underneath the safety of his blankets. Soon the clock on the wall chimed midnight. the witching hour had begun.

The wind that had lightly been blowing outside had suddenly stopped. An uneasy silence had crept across the graveyard and moved throughout the city. It lasted a minute or two. Then the bedlam started to begin.

It started with what sounded like a moan from far off in the distance. Then a wail. Then another moan. Then a shriek. Then a blood curdling howl. Then the sounds of the unliving wailed, moaned and shrieked in unison. The wind picked up again far stronger than before the silence.

Erasmus squeezed against the edge of the blanket holding it firm so that nothing could tear it off of him.

That's when the scratching noises started. Against the walls of his house there came tearing and scraping sounds that chilled his bones.

This bedlam and ruckus went on all through the night. It didn't go away once the morning came. He feared it would never end. Hour after hour the same scraping noised and strong winds kept on. The only difference was the horrid sounds of the undeads' moans and cries and wails that would change in pitch with each different being making their own sounds of terror.

After what felt like an eternity the sounds of terror started to become less frequent. The scraping had stopped, the wind had died down and then Erasmus heard his last moan off in the distance. Then a peaceful silence overcame the town.

A minute later his clock struck midnight marking November 1st. In a clod sweat, Erasmus pulled himself from the bed and stated to tear down the planks he put up across his door and windows. By the time he was done, the sun started to rise. He ran outside to check on the state of the graveyard and his home.

The first thing that had amazed him was that there were no tear marks on his house. In fact his Jack-O-Lanterns were still lit. The second thing that took Erasmus by surprise was that the graveyard was in excellent shape. No stoned or graves showed any signs of being disturbed. In fact the grounds seemed to be in a little bit better condition than he remembered them being in a long while.

The third an final thing that Erasmus noticed was a bit more disturbing. As he looked down the street he noticed that there were a few houses that seemed to have been torn up a bit with broken windows and tear marks against the houses. But, there ware only a few houses that seemed disturbed along the street. There were also a fair amount of houses that weren't messed with at all. The one difference that Erasmus noticed in the houses ware the ones that didn't have any damage were ones that had Jack-O-Lanterns out.

Erasmus smiled to himself knowing that he would be safe every Halloween since he knew he had a special alliance with those that he looked over. And they in return would look over him and all of the others that celebrated Halloween.

So if you haven't yet, make sure you light up those smiling, orange faces this evening and every Halloween from now on. Because you never know what may be lurking about tonight trying to judge who celebrates their holiday......... and who does not."

I'm not sure where the frack I was going with that, or where it came from for that matter. That's the kind of mess I make when I decide to "free write". It's certainly not Stephen King, but the holiday got the best of my creative juices. It's my way of saying to all of you.........

First Haunt of the Season Explored!

"I awoke this morning in a cold sweat, still clinging to my bed quilt. I cautiously pulled myself from the bed and peeked through the window blinds hoping that my memories from the last night would be redeemed by the morning sunlight. Instead my eyes were met with bleak, dark gray skies.

I tensed up as a sense of caution streaked through me as it did continuously last night during the chilling events that I bore witness to.

It is said that every Halloween season is the time when the worlds of the dead are closest to touching the living and that paranormal encounters are far more frequent. For the last several years, me and my cohorts have explored a few of these places that are wrought with odd happenings.

Currently staying at a nice home in the countryside that we are using as a safe haven, I take the time to reflect on last nights occurrences.

Last night our curiosity of the macabre got the best of us. With a week load of a bright moon haunting the nights' skies, we should have seen this as an omen of things to come.

Not far from our sanctuary there is an old abandoned high school with a strong paranormal reputation. We decided to investigate it last night. God save our souls........"

And this dark little narrative is just the segue I need for my review of.........

The Haunted High School - Located just a short hop, skip, jump and run for your life from the main freeway is a huge abandoned high school in Oconomowoc, WI that is now wonderfully utilized as a yearly Haunted Attraction. Boasting itself as the largest haunt in Wisconsin and the only haunt with a creepy High School theme within the midwest, myself, Roberto Del Amorte and his lovely wife Iris Von Beaverhousen decided to see if this haunt was worth its bragging rights.

We got to the haunt a little later in the evening and were met with a full parking lot and gymnasium full of people waiting to get in. We decided on the Fast Pass option that got us a better place in line since we didn't want to hassle with the 90 minute wait. Though they had old horror movies playing on the walls of the gym, we wanted to jump right in and get our scare on!

Upon entering the haunt itself we were ushered down a flight of stairs that led to the workout rooms. This first area set the stage for the high school nightmares that were to come. Part work out gym and part torture chamber we saw more than a few poor souls tied and strapped to the workout equipment. The one problem that I found in this area that didn't seem to effect the rest of the haunt was that it was way too darkly lit. You couldn't see the tableaus that were meticulously put together. Not sure if that was on purpose or if some electrical feed was not working. In any case, the rest of the haunt was lit good enough to be spooky dark, yet still visible enough to not be missed.

Through the rest of the haunt I noticed that the effects and scenery were utilizing the Old School method. Instead of investing in uber-expensive, detailed effects that can be purchased at haunt conventions or online for the price of your soul, organizers used what they had and home made effects to fill the scenery and effects. For example, before abandoning the high school, the school district left behind a bevy of desks and lockers that became part of the outline of the mazes. Who needs to create a school house effect when they had one built in already? Would have it been nice to see that "wow" factor of an effect that would blow our minds? Sure. Was it necessarily needed here? Nope.

Traversing through all aspects of high school that bring back bad memories were all present here. The rotting "food" of the cafeteria, the impossible math equations, detention hall, the horticultural classes and of course the finale of the school quad, where instead of being terrorized from the dumb jock bullies, here you had to watch out for the chain-saw wielding maniac.

I'm always leery when they use young scare-actors as the ghouls for a haunt. Past haunts we've witnessed them standing around in groups talking to each other rather than putting on the scare. This group did surprisingly well. Most of them were into full character having a great time making us wet our pants. We only came across the weaker ones in the cheap masks giving out a half hearted "Rawrrrr" only once or twice.

One of the big set pieces is the auditorium where a chorus of animatronic skeletons sing along to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as ghoulish dancers try and get patrons to dance along. This was pretty impressive, but I think I would have been more awestruck if they had been referencing the ORIGINAL Rocky Horror and not the one based off of the uberhyped and over praised Glee version. The huge banner that had the Glee logo over the stage didn't help. Give me a little Bostwick and Sarandon, rather than a Finn or Puck in my Rocky Horror. No, I'm not a huge fan of Glee if you could tell.

On the far better side of things, this haunt was pretty frackin' long! 35 minutes for an indoor haunt is pretty good. Most don't last more than 20 minutes, if that. Most people who pay what we paid for other haunts get through the place just as their getting into the mood. Every point I thought we were coming to the end, there was a huge new area to discover.

Was this the best haunt of all time?. Well, no. The organizers could learn a thing or two if they attended one of the big haunt conventions and invested in just a few professional scares. But, was this a darn good haunt? You bet!!! A few adjustments and this baby could go big time!

In the end, The Haunted High School is a darn hearty haunt that is a bit of a spooky adventure that is a darn good scare, but not quite up there with the pro haunts. Its main strengths are the length of the show and it's home grown charm while the dedication of its young scare-actors could easily rival other haunts that use teens. Overall, I was pretty impressed!

Hopefully there will be more spooky adventures to be had this season. My Good friend, Mr. Bones has shown an interest in attending a haunt with yours truly. Let's see if he's up to the challenge.

Zangz.

The Source of My Love for Halloween: Saturday Morning Programing!

A few weeks ago I found myself in a bit of a parking space jam. My apartment building is doing extensive work on the back parking lot where I park my car. So I've had to find an alternative parking method which has ended up being a night parking permit in an area that is a bit of a walk from my apartment.

In my neighborhood finding a parking spot is a luxury and I was able to find a little area that is right near a small park about one mile from my home. This has worked nicely for two reasons. One, it's in a small patch of higher class suburban neighborhood. Two, it has gotten me back to taking nice leisurely walks in the early mornings and evenings.

Many times my walks take place during the dark hours early in the morning or late at night. Many people may feel a bit uncomfortable taking walks during the dark hours. But, for me, it is quite the pleasure.

I enjoy the ghostly shadows of the trees of the park that shimmy and float about during windy weather. There's also a big, dark, gothic home that sits at the end of a dead end street that never seems to have any lights on or any movement going on inside or out. Who or what lives there, I wonder?

There's even a little patch of wooded area that I have to pass along on my daily jaunts. I always wonder what may be looking at me from inside the dark folliage. Is there a little chipmunk in a state of caution ready to high tail it up a tree if I move toward it? Or maybe it's a rabid raccoon that is ready pounce on my face if I move in it's general direction. Or, best yet, what if it is a reanimated corpse, freshly risen from the grave that would ramble on out, grabbing my head and taking a big chomp out of the front of it?

With these dark ideas running through my odd little mind, one may wonder, "Where did this guy's love of the macabre come from? What was the source for his love of all things spooky?"

I've been trying to trace back my love of all things spookarific for a while now and I have to tell you that it goes way back to my love of Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

Oddly, I was never really impressed with the Buggs Bunny, Looney Tunes type shows. I was more into the action, adventure and mystery influenced cartoons.

During the late 60's and early 70's there were a bunch of cartoons that centered around a group of teens and some form of mascot that would hunt ghosts and monsters.

There were a few rules that these shows all followed.

1) The group was always led by a good looking boy and good looking girl. The rest of the group were misfit looking goof balls that were the comedic relief.

2) The group always had some form of mascot character who was usually the main character and namesake of the show. It would usually be some sort of dog or animal. If it were a dog, it had to be able to talk.

3) The group would always drive around in some sort of 70's hot rod type vehicle such as a dune buggy or love van.

The grandaddy and first of the bunch was......

Scooby-Doo, Where are You? - Four teens, Freddy, Wilma, Daphne and Shaggy along with Shaggy's pet Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, go out of their way to discover the most creepy locations to hunt and find ghosts, ghouls and monsters that usually end up being some crook with an elaborate plan to either hide stolen money, steal money, or scheme someone out of money.

My earliest childhood memories revolve around getting up early on Saturday mornings and watching Scooby Doo. For whatever reason, I loved the hell out of that frackin' show as a kid.

Watch the intro to Scooby-Doo HERE!

After the success of Scooby-Doo, children's Saturday mornings were filled with teens and their wacky mascots solving mysteries. Here are a few of them that pretty much carbon copied Scooby-Doo's characters, plots, outlines, motifs and themes. Let's see which ones you all remember?

The Funky Phantom - Three teens and their bull dog who drive around in a dune-buggy join forces with the ghosts of a colonial gentleman and his pet cat. The group spend much of the episodes chasing other ghosts (who of course end up as crooks in costume). I loved this show as well. Watch the intro to the show HERE!

Goober and the Ghost Chasers - Talk about ripping off Scooby-Doo! This show even stole a lot of the images from the intro. This time it's a group of teens who have a dog that turns invisible when it's frightened. Check out the intro HERE!

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels - Same concept here, except the three female girls were obviously conceived from the popularity of TV's Charlie's Angels. Oddly, there's no talking dog mascot in this show. Instead the girls hang out with a prehistoric super hero. See the intro HERE!

Fangface - Here we have yet another group of teens who's "mascot" is one of their own. One of the kids in the group is a werewolf . So whenever trouble ensues, one of the kids shows him a picture of a full moon (if there isn't one in the sky already) and he turns into wolf form and saves the day. See intro HERE!

Clue Club - Another bunch of teens. Another dune buggy. This one was a little less spooky and focused more on a group of teens and their two talking dogs that went after less over the top and creepy villains. I do remember one or two episodes where the gang did go after spooks, but it wasn't the norm for this cartoon. See intro HERE!

If you thought my love of the macabre was spawned from only the cartoons on Saturday mornings, you'd be wrong. Children's programing did have its share of live action shows and this next one was one of my all time favorites!

The Ghost Busters - About eight years prior to Bill Murry and Dan Akroyd putting proton packs on their backs, it was two former actors from the TV show "F Troop" and their trained gorilla hunting down ghosts and ghouls with a "Ghost Dematerializer". Every episode was pretty much the exact same story. Ghost Busters go on a mission to hunt a ghost. Ghost Busters go to the same haunted castle from the previous episode. Hi-jinx ensue. They catch the ghost with their big spotlight looking machine. End of story. Take a look at the intro HERE!

Monster Squad - The Ghost Busters wasn't the only live action spookfest that would take place on Saturday mornings. There was also this little gem. On Monster Squad there was a bit of a twist. Instead of a group of teens hunting monsters, it was one teen, named Walt, who controlled the famous monsters The Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Walt would send them out on missions to take down criminals and other baddies. By day, the monsters would pose as wax figures in a museum. By night, they'd fight crime. Senator Fred "DON'T CALL ME GOPHER!!" Grandy played the roll of Walt. Let's take a little look-see right HERE!

Kids programming changed wildly when the 80's came. Cartoons were half hour commercials for an action figure line. There were no more spooks, no more haunted houses to search and no more dark grey backgrounds to get you into the mood. The bad guys were the same every episode. The days of teen mystery sleuths and their wacky pets and cohorts were dead.

I miss those chilly, fall Saturday mornings where a new crop of cartoons would issue in even more teen mystery shows that gave me my first taste of the macabre.

Zangz.

Season of Spooks Has Begun!

The morning autumnal chill that we have recently awoken to makes most want to stay within the warm, cuddly, safe embrace of their bed quilts and pillows. But, for others of us, we know that there is far more to it than that.

We know that true safety only comes once the sun rises. During these longer nights, we know that there are things that dwell within the darkened shadows, lurking, waiting, whispering and moaning. They come from netherworlds and forgotten dimensions.

For most people these mythical monstrosities are things of legends and campfire stories. But, for others of us that know better, they are the unspeakable horrors that feast off of the living's fears and flesh.

FOR THIS IS THE HALLOWEEN SEASON!!!

And right on into the season we go here on my Blog of Geekdom! I've finished my annual alterations on my blog so that they are more suitable for this wonderful, spooky season.

So lets get right into it, shall we?

What creepy activities have I jumped into to start the celebrating of the spook season? Well, I've been playing....

Red Dead Redemption: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE - This is neither a sequel or prequel to the old west, open world, shoot 'em up, Red Dead Redemption. This is more of a "What If" story that ponders the notion, "What if the old west suffered from a sudden outbreak of a zombie plague?"

Lead protagonist, John Marston finds his safe and sweet, rancher lifestyle torn to shreds as the nearby township of Blackwater is infested with the flesh-eating undead. This sets him on a open world journey throughout the old west to try and find a cure as well as survive.

The game features the same map and locations that the original Red Dead did, but most townships and ranches are zombie filled and burning to the ground. You have to guide Marston through the countryside and either avoid or kill off hordes of zombies while taking on a whole slew of missions. You'll be expected to cleanse graveyards, hunt sasquatch, capture the four horses of the apocalypse, clear towns of zombies as well as taking on the main story's quest missions.

The game play is pretty much the same with a slight survival horror twist. There are thousands of zombies in this game and ammunition is not as plentiful as it was in the last game. In fact, one of the only places you'll find it is off of the bodies of zombies that you have dispatched. Not all zombies carry ammo. Just the ones who have gun belts on them. Sometimes you get rewarded with ammo after completing a mini-mission, but there are no working stores to exchange items for money. So whatever ammo you get, consider yourself lucky. Sometimes you have to decide if it's going to be fight or flight when confronted with a brood of zombies on the road in front of you when you're low on ammo.

There's also a little more strategy involve when taking out oncoming zombies. In grand zombie folklore tradition, the only way you can completely kill a zombie is a good, solid head shot! This can be made a little easier when you use the "quick shot" feature which slows down the scene and lets you set well aimed shots. However this only lasts for so long and has to recharge after its use. This can be detrimental when more zombies are coming at you. You have to figure out if you want to run from them as you quick-shot meter builds back up or if you want to aim out the shots on your own, real time. You can also shoot them in the legs and lower extremities to slow them down and allow you to take better aim. Either way, there's a distinct possibility that you will become zombie chow.

Some of the frustrating control issues have not been fixed from the last game. You'll find yourself circling a dead zombie carcass over and over again until you find the right angle where the game lets you search the body for ammo. And of course there are times when you are running from zombies and you easily make the mistake to put your character into the crouch position rather than continue running which is always a ton of fun when you have a few zombies on your back.

Despite these control issues, the game is a ton of wicked, spooktacular fun! The creepy atmosphere, gallows humor and zombie hunting more than make up for the slight frustrations. The game is also priced pretty frackin' nicely for the amount of content that's there.

If you are a zombie fan and like tales of the old west as well as open world game play, this is a must buy!

I'll keep this introductory Halloween season post short. I have to start plotting on what poor souls I'm going to try and drag to a Haunted Attraction this year. I hope you all get to take on some fun autumn and Halloween activities this season!

Zangz.