Writer's Blog!

Yup. It’s that time again. C2E2 has come and gone. Last year, C2E2 became my first comic convention that I actually participated in. It was a great show, and Star Crossed Galaxy and Twilight Pop Productions had a huge turnout. As for me, I was a rookie looking to drink all the knowledge and experience everyone else had to offer. This year, I was a little more seasoned. I had a better booth, more freebies and more products to sell. It all started on Friday morning. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before. I was nervous about oversleeping and missing the train. I also couldn’t stop thinking about if I had packed enough supplies for the show. After convincing myself that I was just fine, I ate a half a bowl of raisin bran, showered up and headed off to the train. Last year I went with my pal Andy, which made the trip go by rather quickly. This year I was going solo, and without my i-pod. I was pretty screwed. Fortunately, I was sitting next to a pretty cool guy and we ch...

Hey everybody! I thought I would pop in and say howdy. Also if any of you loyal readers (all 3 of ya) happen to be in Chicago this weekend, take note that I will also be there! Yes, I will be at C2E2 in Artist Alley this Friday through Sunday selling copies of my comic book series Star Crossed Galaxy. I will also be promoting TwilightPop Productions, selling copies of the most recent issue of TwilightPop Presents and just generally hanging around. So if you happen to be in Chicago, or even at the show, stop by, say hi, purchase some good reads, and profess your love for my blog. Also I will freely sign anything. Mostly copies of my comics that I sell you, but I am willing to sign boobs like all great celebrities should. Moobs are okay too, as I am an equal opportunity signer. So there you have it. C2E2 this weekend. I will be sitting in Artist Alley at table F19. And of course, I will absolutely write up a full report on how the show went when I return, just like last year....

Bioware announced today that they will be adding a new DLC extended ending to Mass Effect 3. This extending ending will add new cinematic sequences and epilogues for those looking for further closure to Shepard’s story. Any combat? No. Do we get to kill Harbinger? No. Does the Normandy crew get saved? No. Do we get to live happily ever after with our love interest? No. Do our choices matter? No. The only thing this DLC will do is explain the ending. Wow. That’s it? Good to know you were listening Bioware. If you were listening, you would know that clarification is not what we needed. We needed a real ending that fits consistently with Mass Effect and its lore. Clarification will not work, and this is why. The Final Battle In case you don’t know, let me give you a brief rundown. Mass Effect has been a trilogy of games that have emphasized choice, individual freedom, and player empowerment. You are Commander Shepard, and throughout the trilogy, you the player force...

Finally, enough time has passed for me to cool down and evaluate Mass Effect 3 with a clear head. It is no secret that the game has come under considerable fire lately, specifically over its ending. You can see that I have already written a few posts here that demonstrate both the best and worst of ME3. Mass Effect originally started out as a sci-fi action/RPG based on classic sci-fi films of the 70s and 80s. It was to take your hero, Commander Shepard across a trilogy of adventures, allowing you to make hard choices, the results of which would culminate in its third act. A lot of hype was built up around Mass Effect 3, as it carried the weight of not just one, but three games on its shoulders. Mass Effect 3 really is a great game, a great game that suffers from monumental problems. Problems that I never would have expected coming from Bioware, of all studios. In fact, I think Mass Effect 3 may very well have become a vessel of Bioware ineptitudes in many ways. It is also an...

Only days after writing an open letter to Bioware about how disappointed I was with the ending of Mass Effect 3, here I am writing up a defense letter. Am I consistent or what? The truth is, I feel really bad for Bioware right now. Sure ME3's ending was confusing, anticlimactic , and flat out disappointing. When the two most popular interpretations for the endings are either a) a dream that does not exist in reality and therefore never happened, or b) completely illogical nonsense that makes no sense to anyone, there is a serious problem. However, the ending is not the only part of the game. Mass Effect 3 is a great adventure nearly all the way through. I really enjoyed playing it. The reason I decided to write this defense letter was because I saw a Twitter post from Jessica Merizan, community manager at Bioware. On her tweet, she asked what the fans' favorite mission in ME3 was. I wanted to respond her because I have a pretty great story behind why my favorite mis...

Dear Bioware, I just wanted to step in and voice my concerns for Mass Effect 3. I feel it is necessary that I give my opinions because I think that with all that has happened over the last few days, it would be good for you guys to hear from a clear head. There seem to be a lot of angry fans out there, and while I am not angry, I am disappointed. First of all, I would like to begin by saying that Mass Effect 3 was immensely enjoyable. It was brutally intense and the story was better written than I could have ever hoped. I also really appreciated the more emotional side to the story. I felt that ME2 was a bit emotionally shallow in comparison to ME1, but for ME3 I am not afraid to admit that I cried more than a few times. That being said, the ending really was a kick in the head. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what was going on. It seemed like Shepard was being indoctrinated. If that is the case, I applaud the ending, at least to some degree. It was cool how you designe...

Today I got a chance to try out the demo for Mass Effect 3, earlier than the Valentine’s Day release date. I would like to send out a big thank you to movie321456 at the Bioware Social Network for offering me the code. Thanks! Anyways, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about how Mass Effect 3 will turn out. I have had my ups and downs with it. One day, I think it’s going to be terrible and a massive disappointment. Other days, I think it will be the end all be all RPG of our time. It can go either way, after all, Bioware has a lot to deliver on, and many fans have lost faith in their ability to deliver the goods. A lot is riding on Mass Effect 3, which means that a lot is riding on this demo. So without further ado, let me offer my take on the demo. I have already given my perspective on the beta leak not too long ago, so I will avoid being redundant. In case you were not aware, the demo features the opening on Earth and a portion of the mission on Sur’Kesh, the S...

I don’t like horror movies. They never scare me. There have only been two horror movies that I have seen that genuinely freaked me out, The Thing and the original Evil Dead. That’s it. I normally like to shy away from creepers, slashers, chillers and freakers because of this. That being said, a friend asked me to accompany her to see this movie (which I admit, I never even heard of it until she asked) so I said, sure! Why not? The worst that could happen is that I get to write a review about the flick. And now, it is so. The Woman in Black isn’t so much a horror movie as it is a spooky thriller. It’s about some guy who stays in a haunted house for some reason. Honestly, I really don’t know what was going on. Harry Potter played some kind of lawyer, I think. He was trying to sell a haunted house. Maybe he was a realtor. I don’t know. Anyways, he stays in the house and it’s haunted. That’s really all you need to know. The house itself is occupied by the spirit of one...

A funny thing happened to me this week. I became that which I have always wanted to become. A grizzly bear. Well, no. Not really. I didn’t become a bear. No. The truth is, that after years of trying to become a real writer, perfecting my craft, publishing a comic, and running this blog that is designed to make you inferior beings just a tad smarter, I have made it! Yes sir. I now feel comfortable calling myself an industry professional. An honest to God writer. How did this happen? I will tell you sir. I will tell you. Only a few days ago, one of my posts made its way to a certain forum. Now I won’t go into detail about what the slightly disparaging post may have claimed about an upcoming threequel game. And out of sheer respect for the community, I won’t B other S aying N othing about who read the article. In any event, the post was panned and I received what essentially amounted to hate mail. No threats mind you, just a few petty insults, a bunch of dudes putting w...

Okay, so this review is roughly, a year and a half late, but I have a very good reason for that. I never played Halo Reach until recently. There is a good reason for that too. The reason I never played Halo Reach is because I despise the Halo franchise. Yes it’s true. A console-monger that doesn’t like Halo? Perish the thought. To me, anything post Halo: Combat Evolved was an exercise in redundancy, featuring standard shooter gameplay, a convoluted story, wimpy and uninteresting weapons, silly enemies and one of the worst protagonists in modern gaming. Again, Halo: Combat Evolved was new and fresh, and actually gave Master Chief some character, so that one isn’t bad. Every subsequent chapter, however, was. In any event, I managed to get a free copy of Halo Reach and decided to give it a shot. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to play. Halo Reach, to me, is almost an anti-Halo game. Much like how an anti-hero performs heroic actions, but is still not exact...