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Archive: December, 2007
I think it was around the time that Saving Private Ryan was released to mass appeal and critical praise that game developers turned their eyes on the World War II genre. Sure, Nazi blasting games like Wolfenstein 3-D on the PC had been around a while, but since the late ‘90s, you could count on a bevy of WWII shooters each year, and the Medal of Honor series has been one of the most long running and productive. Medal of Honor first appeared last year on the Wii with Vanguard, a game the received mediocre reviews on all systems but Nintendo’s, where it did even worse and was lambasted as a rushed port with awful controls. That said, many Wii owners might be cautious to pick up Heroes 2 – or might even be sick of the genre altogether – but the game does a lot for the future of Wii games by nailing the controls. One of my biggest problems with Wii games has been that not many developers outside of Nintendo have fully utilized the Wii’s motion controls, resulting in the games feeling like dumbed-down, recycled material. While Heroes 2 doesn’t wow in the plot or gameplay departments – it’s more of the same missions, equipment, and story – the controls are what makes it fun. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, showed that a first-person shooter could really work well on the Wii, and Heroes 2 takes that foundation on builds on it. Using the Wii remote to aim your weaponry and the accompanying nunchuck for movement, the controls feel intuitive, and you’ll get to do fun things like flick the remote to pump your shotgun and make overhand throwing motions to lob grenades into enemy machinegun nests. There's also a control scheme that supports the recently released Wii Zapper, but I didn’t play with one. The game also supports online play through the console’s built in wi-fi, and that works well, too, allowing you to take on up 31 of your friends in deathmatch and capture the flag modes. A veteran of a lot of PC-based multiplayer games, it took me a while to get used to the tv and not being directly in front of the screen. After about five minutes, though, I was scoring some points. And if you get bored with the single-player and multi-player modes, you can tackle a lot of the game’s levels in arcade mode, an on-rails shooter reminiscent of the old arcade shoot-em-ups. On the downside, the games sports some of the worst artificial intelligence ever seen in first-person shooter. Wave after wave of enemy soldier will sometimes completely ignore you, refuse to take cover, or run straight into your midst. Same goes for your squad mates, who seem quite adept at shooting up walls and closed doors for no reason. Overall, the game is pretty fun. It’s nice to see that EA did actually put some work into making this an actual Wii game, which hasn’t been happening enough in the console’s year of existence.
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| Photo l Whitney Thomas |
| Colby Colb and a few others take a moment from cooking to cheese it up |
I know this was event was over a week ago, but I just got the pictures and they tell the story better than my words do - so excuse my tardiness... I love food. I love men. I love community involvement. So, it all made sense that I'd be really happy at the 16th Annual Philly's Men Are Cookin' event, which has over 100 men dishing up and serving their favorite creations, family secret goodies, or classic foods with a little personal spin. Sweet, eh? It gets even sweeter when you factor in the reason for the celebration, which is to raise funds for a scholarship program for local youth through the Ivy Legacy Foundation, an organization created by members of the Rho Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. We strolled into the National Constitution Center with expandable clothes that hid our empty bellies that were aching to be full. We got our little plates and started downstairs. My first few dishes consisted of Cuban chicken and rice (my favorite) crispy whiting fish (my second favorite), jerk chicken wings, seafood salad, and lots of Thanksgiving inspired dishes including something called turkey crack (like tuna salad, but turkey), fried turkey, sweet baked turkey, about 3 different version of macaroni and cheese, corn stuffing, pineapple stuffing (yum) and collard greens. Upstairs was more of the same, but that is where I chose to explore the deserts including whiskey balls (strong and deadly), cookies, fresh baked muffins, crepes, peach cobbler, pies, chocolate cake, brownies, bread pudding and more. Upstairs is also where we found some chefs making drinks including rum punch, apple martinis, and a kiwi/strawberry/lemonade drink from cooks that wouldn't reveal what the hell we were actually drinking (see picture of men with ? shirts on). The room was full of beautiful and caring people including notables like honorary co-chairs Patty Jackson (WDAS) and Dr. Keith Leaphert, Chef Colby Colb (100.3 The Beat), who had some mean marmalade wings and Chef Senator Anthony Williams, who I THINK had some type of spaghetti. I was full by the time I saw his station. A nice element came through the youth volunteers that were buzzing around. Seeing that kind of brought the event full circle. It is also worth mentioning there was a live band there to provide a little intimate soundtrack to the evening. When we left some stations still had quite a bit of food, which I hope found a good home. If you missed it, here are some pictures to make you feel like you were there...well...kind of! With the city's murder rate still climbing, it was nice to not only see positive males volunteering their time and chef skills, but also an organization that is doing what they can to curb the violence. And of course, it is not too late to donate.
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| Photo l Whitney Tomas |
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| Photo l Whitney Tomas |
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| Photo l Whitney Tomas |
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| Photo l Whitney Tomas |
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| Photo l Whitney Tomas |
2008 GeoClan presents Chili! Coming to a cold body near you! Man me can cook...sometimes.
I need for everybody to understand that Geoclan is sending a dark horse for next years event. He has shut down many events. Those who know who he is, I know you can't wait.
this is my new e-mail address and I will be cooking this year
Vintage punkity rawk. But many questions are begged here. Where is this, precisely? Dobbs? Pre-Dobbs? (Likely.) Moreover, what presciently-minded person shot this? Film or VHS? How strange is it to see concert footage before the advent of DV and cameraphones? Bets on whether the camera survived the full set? Was Temple's budding film department pissed when its rented gear was returned in pieces?
damn! that clip takes me back. miss those days. don't think that was dobb though....maybe...dunno
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