Jul 072013
 

So in a continuing effort to bond with my sons and share some of their interests, I sometimes will “challenge” them to video game contests—and by “challenge” I mean that we play some sort of video game where they repeatedly pummel me as I have no clue what the heck I’m doing. In the process, we have a few laughs together over my ineptitude and I like to think it brings us closer together.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am not much of a video gamer for the simple reason that it’s waaaay too easy for me to get sucked in, never to be seen again. When I was first dating my wife in the early 1990s (back before I had a computer), I’d find myself over her house spending countless hours playing Wolfenstein and SimCity on her dad’s computer—it’s a wonder she didn’t dump me.

Nonetheless, it became obvious to me that I really can become addicted to it in the blink of an eye. And as one who appreciates the brevity of Life, I’ve decided that I have better things to do than spend my precious time whiling away the hours working a joystick or furiously tapping away at a keyboard. As such, I just avoid them as much as I can, so I’ve never played many of the newer classics, from Angry Birds and Bejeweled Blitz to Draw Something and Candy Crush. Actually, I never played many of the older classics, either—no Mario, no Zelda, no Donkey Kong, no Sonic the Hedgehog … heck, I never even died of dysentery on the Oregon Trail.

Just sad, really.

Anyway, as mentioned, I thought I was overdue for some father-son bonding time, and since it’s about 116 degrees in the shade, an activity that could be done in the comfort of air conditioning seemed like the way to go.

My older son recently got Injustice: Gods Among Us for Xbox from one of his buddies, and I saw him playing it the other day, and it looked like … well, cool. It’s basically a fighting game, stocked with the heroes and villains from the DC universe—Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Joker, Catwoman, etc. The visuals are terrific and the game play seems fairly straightforward and centuries beyond any Pong experience that I can recall from the halcyon days of my youth.

In particular, this sequence caught my eye—it’s Aquaman’s “super move.”

Totally cool, right?!!! Anything that can make Aquaman (long derided as being the lamest of super friends) look like a bad ass—and involves feeding opponents to sharks—I’d like to try at least once.

So we started playing and like I knew might happen, I found myself getting sucked in pretty quickly. I’ve rationalized it by saying that I’m spending time with my sons, but really, I’m also really just losing myself in the mindless fun of it.

But as you might expect, my mind never really rests, even when it’s supposed to be playing.

So I thought what this game needs is some special characters—but rather than take them from the DC universe, I thought they could come from the current real universe. Since Injustice sort of has each hero and their arch-nemesis, I thought I’d follow that pattern, too.

As such, here are some characters that could be added.

Barack Obama – Everyone wants to be President of the United States, right? So here’s your chance. Fighting moves include “The POTUS Punch,” “(Medieval) Flail From the Chief” and “The Violent Veto.”
• Super Move: “ObamaFlair,” where the President strolls up to his opponent and just nods casually at them—a detachment of Secret Service agents appear and beat down the opponent, leaving them bleeding in the middle of the screen. An unmanned aerial drone then comes screaming in and unleashes a firestorm of missiles, completely vaporizing the opponent.

Donald Trump – The nemesis of Obama, and the working poor, too. Fighting moves include “The Birth Certificate Shakedown,” “The Trump Thump” and “The Uptown Lowdown.”
• Super Move: “The Toupée Flambé,” where The Donald’s limo first runs repeatedly over the opponent, and after they are beaten down, Trump jumps out of the back seat, yanks off his bad hair and shoves it into his opponent’s throat until they are choking. He then lights a $100 bill, holds it dramatically, then touches it to the toupée, which bursts in a white-hot flame that torches his opponent. He then stands over them, laughs and says, “You’re fired!”

Charles Ramsey – Sure, his 15 minutes of fame for helping to rescue three women being held hostage in Cleveland might be up, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be immortalized in a video game. Fighting moves include “Kick It Down,” “The 15-Minute Firestorm” and “Cleveland Rocks.”
• Super Move: “The Big Mac Attack,” where Ramsey stuns an opponent with a door, then stuffs burgers down his opponent’s throat until they bloat up and explode, resulting in pickles, lettuce, tomatoes and ground beef (human and cow) to rain down.

Rush Limbaugh – The nemesis of Ramsey and non-whites everywhere. Fighting moves include “The Mega Ditto Mash,” “The Racist Ramble” and “The Bully Pulpit.”
Super Move: “The Pill Popper,” where Limbaugh first sits on the head of his opponent, causing them to become weak, and as they stumble around, Limbaugh reaches inside his jacket, takes out a giant vial of pills, pops them into his mouth and then spits them out like machine gun bullets, tearing his opponent to shreds.

Chris Kluwe – The well-spoken punter of the Oakland Raiders, a huge World of Warcraft aficionado who grabbed headlines by sending a scathing open letter defending gay marriage to ignorant Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. Fighting moves include “Dropkick to Homophobic Balls,” “Necessary Roughness” and “Hero Spell.”
Super Move: “The Death Punt,” where Kluwe whips out his WoW sword and severs his opponent’s skull, which he then grabs and kicks across the Injustice world—leaving a gay pride rainbow in its wake—and through a fiery goal post at the other end. After it explodes, Kluwe just nods his head while Andres Cantor’s screams “Gooooooooool!!!!”

Fred Phelps – As the leader of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, he is the scourge of intelligence and decency everywhere, and a natural nemesis of Kluwe. Fighting moves include “Haterade Parade,” “Attention Whore Galore” and “Prince of Lies.”
Super Move: “The Picket Line,” where Phelps points at his opponent and screams “Heathen!” which summons forth his inbred followers to do his dirty work that includes beating his opponent senseless with their handheld signs. When woozy, he then calls in his pack of lawyers, who feast on the opponent and tear away his flesh like a hungry jackals while Phelps basks in the glow of heavenly light.

Matt Harvey – The Connecticut-born ace of the New York Mets pitching staff, a.k.a “The Dark Knight of Gotham.” Fighting moves include “The Mystic Warrior,” “Flamethrower” and ”
Super Move: “Strike Three!” where Harvey scorches three flaming baseballs by his opponent simultaneously, which set the opponent on fire. The opponent instantaneously burns to a crisp and crumbles into a pile of ashes, which are casually swept up by an umpire.

Alex Rodriguez – “A*ROID,” admitted steroid abuser and MLB cheater, is the antithesis of Harvey and all the players who compete by the rules. Fighting moves include “The Grand Slam,” “Phony Baloney” and “The Big Choker.”
Super Move: “Roid Rage,” where Rodriguez grabs a giant hypodermic needle and sticks it in his opponent’s butt—his opponent immediately sprouts zits on their back, his testicles shrink and he starts to swell up with muscles (like Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). Rodriguez then grabs a bat and hits them, causing them to explode.

Melissa McCarthy – The full-figured, humble and hugely talented star of TV and movies. Fighting moves include “The Badonkadonk Beatdown,” “Box Office Boffo” and “The Laugh Factory.”
Super Move: “The Gut Buster,” where McCarthy makes her opponent watch her clips, getting them to laugh harder and harder … at first they pee themselves, then they get hiccups, and finally, they just split a gut—literally—and bleed out, expiring with a smile on their face.

Justin Bieber – A scrawny teenaged heartthrob who may have had aspirations of being a genuine entertainer but is quickly becoming just another Hollywood douchebag. Fighting moves include “The Pin Up,” “The Twitter Splitter” and “Beauty and a Beating.”
Super Move: “Bieber Fever,” where Bieber stops the fight, pulls out a cell phone and Tweets something. Suddenly, a hook drops from the ceiling and the doors of the fight arena open simultaneously; Bieber grabs on to the hook and ascends while thousands of screaming teenaged girls flood in through the doors and, deprived of a chance to be with Justin, attack the hapless opponent just standing there, literally tearing him from limb to limb.

 

Mar 252013
 

So this past weekend, we attended PAX East in Boston—and if you have no idea what this (like I did up to a few weeks ago), it’s the largest gaming event on the East Coast. It’s a huge expo for everything video- and board-game related, and features hundreds of gaming companies sharing and marketing games. Not surprisingly, it draws thousands of gamers, like cash-laden moths to flames.

If you can’t guess, it wasn’t my idea to attend—my two sons (aged 13 & 11) are heavily into video games. (Shocker, right?) So with Boston only about a two-hour drive, this is an excursion that’s not too much of a burden and will make them pretty happy. Why the heck not, right?

Now, I’ve been New York Comic Con a number of times, which is different in that it’s dedicated to comic books and skews more toward sci-fi and fantasy, so I think going in that I know what to expect. But after a short time, I realize that even though there’s thousands of passionate fans crushing together in a large convention hall, it’s not quite the same.

In fact, here are

The Top 10 Things I Learned About PAX (the gaming convention, not the Jeebus TV channel)

1. Nerds!!!!

Yeah, another shocker. Even if it’s not about comic books, it still brings the future rulers of the world out of their mothers’ basements and dens of geekery. And really, who am I fooling? I may not play video games, but I am certainly a nerd, as are my sons, so these are *our* people. It feels good to be among them.

2. LOTS of nerds!!!

Seriously, we get a late jump on Sunday morning and get there about 15 minutes after the doors officially open and not only are the convention center lots all full, but the roads are absolutely jammed in all directions with gamers trying to find places to park. After a few minutes, I let my wife and kids get out and go in while I tried to follow the slow moving stream of cars to the “overflow” lots, which are almost a mile away. Along the way I see a parking garage—I ask a cop directing traffic if it’s okay to park there. He tells me I can, but then it’s about a “quarter mile” walk to the convention center and there was no shuttle bus. (Okay, being Bahstahn, he says it’s a “qwawtah mile, pal” but I understand what he means.)

Since I run a few miles every other day, this doesn’t seem like a problem, so rather than spend another half hour driving to the lot and then waiting for the shuttle, I drive in. Definitely a decision that would put a smile on George Costanza’s face—lots of spots, not a bad walk (it was sunny and in the 40s), and coming out at the end of the day, it only costs $9 and I get right on I-90 without any hassle. Sweet!

That aside, there are tons of people in the convention center, but unlike the Javits Center in New Yawk—er, York—the Boston Convention Center is a huge, soaring space with lots of room to get around. Even with the huge crowds, it’s a very pleasant experience.

3. Sex sells.

Duh, right? Not quite as overt as some of the stuff I’ve seen at Comic Con, but all the video game heroes enjoy sculpted ‘roid-fueled hardbodies while the heroines enjoy gravity-defying figures of porn-star proportions.

4. Violence takes a holiday? – I don’t know if it’s a response to Sandy Hook or just the way the gaming industry is headed, but there seems to be less of a presence of violent first-person shooter games. Not that they aren’t there—we see a display for Halo 4 tucked away in a corner—just not as prominent as you might expect considering how popular they are. I do see that they had a panel addressing violent games and the effect on children. Just thought it was interesting.

5. Cosplay takes a holiday? – Unlike Comic Con where every other person seems to be dressed as a hero, villain or Harley Quinn, I’d say only 1 in about 20 are in costume. The two best: a girl who dresses up as GLaDOS from Portal, which is cool because you never see GLaDOS in the game, but as soon as my son spots her, all dressed in white and carrying a large piece of cake (it’s a lie!) he knows exactly who it is; and a young girl decked out as Fionna from “Adventure Time” and her faithful dad, who has on a Jake the Dog costume. Cool dad!

6. Gamers are encouraged to get their game on.

Unlike Comic Con, where there are usually only a few video game companies who set up sample games for fans to play, pretty much every booth has an opportunity for fans to try out new games. This is awesome because even though there are thousands in attendance, there aren’t huge lines at every exhibit (unless it’s something uber popular like the new Elder Scrolls game). My sons are able to play multiple games with only minimal waits. Nice!

The convention also has multiple free gaming areas where you cam play tons of different games on various consoles. Very user friendly, I have to say.

7. Bacon-wrapped turkey drumsticks!

I mean, it may simply be the greatest. lunch. EVAR!

8. Gaming tables?!

I don’t know if this picture does it justice, but what you’re essentially looking at is a deluxe $5,000 iPad with legs that a bunch of gamers can sit around and all play at the same time.

Absolutely freakin’ cool! And brilliant.

The salesman there tells me that there are other smaller models that start at $2,500—it doesn’t take too much imagination to figure that these will start coming down in price and eventually there may be one in every house like a pool table or ping-pong table. Just throw a few cup holders on that bad boy, and we’re all set!

9. Don’t leave early to get the car or you might miss Jonathan Coulton – So being the good chauffeur that I am, I decided that rather than make my family walk all the way to the car, I’ll go get it and call from my cell when I’m close. In the 15 minutes I’m trudging out to the parking garage, my wife and sons get to meet the singer-songwriter responsible for such fun and catchy tunes as “re: your brains,” “Code Monkey,” “IKEA” and the theme to Portal. You also might know the name from the recent news when the TV show “Glee” ripped off his version of “Baby Got Back.”

I, on the other hand, get to meet a pee-stained hobo named Butch on my walk. (Well, I’m guessing his name was Butch; we didn’t exchange business cards.)

10. There’s a SUPER ZAXXON!!!

RIGHT? WHAT THE WHAT?!!

Okay, the only arcade game I ever came close to mastering was Zaxxon, so imagine my shock and joy when we are in the free Classic Arcade room and I discover there is a “SUPER” VERSION of the game! It’s as if I somehow missed an important stage of my development, say like all of 1983.

Of course, I run over and start playing. It’s a little different then I expect, and I’m a bit rusty, to say the least. With other gamers waiting to try, I can’t set the high score, but I do a respectable job.

Granted, it may not be my shining moment, but it does make my day! Video games forever!!!!