A Comedy of Tragic Proportions

So, I watched President Bush's primetime address a few nights ago. For the first time in my life, I witnessed a U.S. President present his solution to a national crisis in a manner of complete futility. Undoubtedly, the economic crisis facing the U.S. is a serious subject, but the fact that the President lacks any form of credibility or power to connect with Americans is a sad reflection of the past eight years. I don't want to talk about the financial situation, I'll just get angry and rant about some half-baked plan to deport corporate executives and seize their assets in the name of Truth, Justice and Apple Pie. The tragedy of the Bush Presidency is the topic du jour.


Hmm, no flagpin on the left, COMMUNO-FASCIST!!! Ok, official White House portrait photoshoppers are good, but he looks worse in reality after 8 years...

Defining moment of the Bush Presidency: 9/11/2001 (duh)

Nothing significant was supposed to come out of the Bush Presidency. All signs pointed towards him joining the legions of Presidents that enjoyed relatively quiet terms. Furthermore, his 2000 campaign was constructed around applying "compassionate conservativism" to the economic and diplomatic accomplishments of the previous three White House occupants.

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road. And I'm going to prevent that."

Hard to believe that George Bush actually said that. I call that prophetic rhetoric. So, Bush got a curveball tossed at him; past Presidents have dealt with worse under more dire conditions. In my opinion, President Bush's biggest failure was the appointment of his cabinet (with the exception of Colin Powell). Numerous members of the cabinet took advantage of the aftermath of 9/11 to implement some personal pet projects ranging from surveillance programs to vast military restructuring to a resolution of the Iraq Liberation Act.

The terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001 drastically altered the direction of his Presidency. The following seven years would be defined by war, the Patriot Act, Neanderthal diplomacy (a great cultural term, but it turns anthropologists' hair gray) and a tax cut n' spend budgetary policy. By the halfway point of Bush's second term, his credibility was shot as well as any chance of establishing a legacy apart from aforementioned accomplishments (immigration, healthcare, social security, and the latest crisis all lost causes).

I personally hate it when I hear about the pre-ordained judgement of George W. Bush's historical legacy. It is, in my opinion, a misuse of the power of historical judgement. Decades of perspective are required to properly judge a leader's historical impact. We can, however, gleans two things from the Bush Presidency. First, he is very unlikely to be counted among the greatest U.S. Presidents (Lincoln, FDR, JFK, etc.). He will probably end up in that strange historical Limbo of Nixon, Wilson, and Truman. The second and perhaps the most unfortunate result of the past seven years has been the destruction of the conservative party platform (it's all cyclical anyway, Repubs are on the downswing).

Update:

I know I promised to avoid the issue, but today's nonsense in the Congress is simply unbelievable. The details of the deal were in place and, as of Sunday, agreed upon in a bipartisan fashion. America is completely handicapped by partisan squabbles. Democrats and Republicans are equally culpable and repugnant. A crisis of this magnitude could not have occurred at a worse time in American history. I fear that our leaders are incapable of solving the problems in America. In my opinion, the best vote that could be cast this Fall is a vote to remove incumbents.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned

The Force Unhinged

The Force Unleashed is the latest Star Wars video game released by Lucasarts. The intention of the developers was to create a Star Wars action game which revolved around the concept of "kicking ass with the Force." Without a doubt, the game delivers on this promise, and more. However, this game suffers from a number of shortcomings that prevent it from being the next Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, or TIE Fighter. I played the Xbox 360 version on the intermediate "Sith Warrior" difficulty level.



This friendly-looking fellow is the protagonist of the game. The only name provided for him is "Starkiller." Joining Starkiller is a cast of interesting characters from the movies and some new ones. Starkiller's droid partner PROXY, pilot Juno Eclipse, and evil master Darth Vader are the major characters. All the characters are strong, and, most importantly, compelling. Sadly, the characters lack some development and I got the feeling that a lot of interaction between the characters was left unexplored. Perhaps this is a reaction to the infamous half-hour cinematics of the Metal Gear Solid series. If so, then the cinematics of The Force Unleashed are a woeful over-reaction. These minor shortcomings aside, the story of the game is its strongest asset. Those familiar with the story of Star Wars can easily predict the ending for the game, but that doesn't make the experience any less enjoyable. Perhaps the greatest praise I could give this game is that it reminded me of the original trilogy, not the prequel trilogy.

Action games live and die with gameplay. Unfortunately, the gameplay in this title could be equated to the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

As I said before, the game does deliver on the promise of "kicking ass with the Force." The Force powers are indeed over-the-top and made me feel like a genuine bad-ass. The leveling system is unremarkable. A similar system was used for Dark Forces: Jedi Knight II and that worked well enough. There are a number of unlockable items that encourage exploration and experimentation (costumes, lightsaber crystals and accomplishments). The combo system is surprisingly deep and lacks a steep learning curve (note: the aerial combos are awesome).



This is where the 20th century Ottoman Empire reference comes in. From what I wrote just now, you would think that this game is the great, but this game is the sick man of Star Wars games. The targeting system in this game is maddening. One can never be sure who or what they are targeting without stopping and delicately rotating Starkiller into position. This is anathema to action games. Aside from the targeting system, the toughest bosses and enemy encounter feel like they are tough because they are cheap. More than once, I found myself skulking like a thief behind barriers, popping out occasionally to attack before retreating once more. Many reviews of this game revile the inclusion of Quick-time Events (timed pressing of buttons as instructed on the screen), but I have no problem with them whatsoever (label me as "out of touch" or "old-fashioned" if you want). However, one encounter involving a Quick-time Event was egregiously bad. I don't want to spoil too much, but this should have been one of the most awesome parts of the game. Instead, this encounter qualifies as one of the most frustrating gaming moments of my life; which is saying a lot, I played (and raided) World of Warcraft.



The presentation of this game is, mercifully, a strong point. The art is stunningly beautiful, haunting, gritty, etc. The graphics are also very nice with some minor framerate slowdowns. I did encounter a few bugs where I got stuck in some terrain, but I was lucky enough to avoid some of the more serious bugs reported by others. The sound and music are top-notch as with nearly every Star Wars game, good or bad. Some of the voices are poorly casted (Darth Vader and Palpatine), but there are no weak performances. The voice acting of Starkiller and Juno Eclipse is particularly strong.

Overall, this game doesn't deserve some of the dismal reviews it has received. On the other hand, this game was heavily hyped and failed to live up to expectations. I had a lot of fun playing The Force Unleashed, but I would not recommend purchasing it right now unless you really liked the demo and you are a Star Wars fan. Wait for a price cut, borrow it from a friend or rent it.

Shameless plug: If you want to experience the story, but don't want to buy/rent the game, I would recommend going to your local purveyor of books and purchasing the graphic novel. The illustrations are fantastic and you'll pay less than half of what you would for the game.

Image sources:
http://s3.gadgetreview.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Stars_Wars_Force_Unleashed_3.jpg
http://www.xboxfocus.com/uploads/image/Crash_ForceUnleashed.jpg

Video source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YpuIsSdcFs

The Manifesto

This is my blog, or "blag" for you xkcd.com readers, for random thoughts and rants about various topics. My goal is to produce quality, yet entertaining commentary without being preachy or excessively partisan.

I'm not going to explain the title of my blog, instead I'll let my intrepid readers do the research. I will reveal that it is related to both my philosophy towards internet culture and the gentleman named in the blog url (m-t-cicero = Marcus Tullius Cicero). Cicero is one of my favorite historical figures and a kindred spirit.

In this blog I will talk about the things I find interesting. Things of interest include: politics, sports (primarily football and hockey), and video games. I reserve the right to talk about other stuff, but my praise, ire and time will be primarily spent among the listed topics. Hopefully someone else on the Internet will find something worth reading.

Since this is a manifesto post, I should summarize my personal views on the topics I intend to discuss.

Politically, I am chronic fence-sitting moderate. I don't dislike Republicans or Democrats, but I hate the vast right-wing conspiracy as much as the vast left-wing conspiracy. Both parties have some great ideas about how to run the government and they usually do good things if they work together. A psychologist might say that my politics are derived from a latent desire to be labeled as a "coveted member of the electorate" by the media during every election cycle.

When it comes to sports, I am a big hockey and football fan. As a Michigan alum, my undying loyalties lie with the Wolverines. Detroit sports teams are my favorite professional teams, especially the Red Wings and Lions. This will be the first and last time I will talk about NASCAR, because it is a terrible excuse for a motorsport. European Formula One is much more exciting with the diverse teams, left AND right turns, a global tour, and shorter races.

My political stance definitely affects my opinions on video games. First, I like lots of different video games. First-person shooters (FPS), role-playing games (RPG), real-time strategy (RTS), turn-based strategy and adventure games are my favorite genres. Second, PC gaming is not dead. Tell Stardock or Blizzard that PC gaming is dead. Lastly, console fanboy-ism is stupid. I own an Xbox 360 and a decent gaming computer. I enjoy playing games on both platforms and I can appreciate the gaming experience on a Nintendo Wii and a Playstation 3.

That about covers the basics for the Hannibal Ad Portas blog. Enjoy!