Whitney Cummings' Twitter Hacked

Whitney Cummings' Twitter was hacked a few hours ago. She has(had?) over 600,000 followers, so I'm sure Twitter will shut it down soon if they haven't already. Screen captures provided.

So IGN gave Lollipop Chainsaw a 5/10?

(This was originally a post over on IGN's website under their review of Lollipop Chainsaw. I've modified it slightly to add it here to my blog.)

IGN gave Lollipop Chainsaw a score of 5, or "Mediocre". Here's a link to the review if you'd like to read it for yourself.

I'm not entirely surprised at the score from IGN. When there was no review day one I figured their score would be low.

Yakuza 4 and Deadly Premonition also come to mind. IGN gave those games less than favorable reviews(particularly Deadly Premonition), and I really enjoyed them both.

I'm glad I had Lollipop Chainsaw reserved and bought it through Amazon for $45. Personally, I'm really enjoying it. It's pretty short, but it has replay value. There are two endings, a good number of moves and combos to unlock, costumes and collectibles. There's also a Ranked mode with leaderboards, though I may not bother with it too much.

The art style is well done. The reviewer here thinks the animations are "janky", but I think they're consistent. Nothing took me out of the experience graphically at all.

Tara Strong(Juliet) is arguably the most well known voice actress out there. I was really surprised that the reviewer filed her voice work under "bad". Michael Rosenbaum(Nick) was pretty solid overall, but honestly I felt like a few of his lines could have been delivered better. One that stuck out was "Awesome.", which you'll hear him say occasionally during a Sparkle Hunt. It's unenthusiastic monotone, barely audible. It only happens on occasion but whenever I hear it, it sticks out like a sore thumb. You also hear Nick repeat lines many times at certain points. Maybe they couldn't get Michael Rosenbaum for as long as they initially planned, so they couldn't redo some of his lines?

The guy is a great actor and has done some awesome voice work before(Nishki in the first Yakuza for PS2, Flash in Justice League:DOOM), so it sucked that he was the one guy who stuck out in a bad way, even if only for a line here or there.

I liked the boss battles. Like any other boss battle, you figure out the pattern and you do it. The reviewer complains about one hit deaths during boss battles. There are some instances where you can get killed during a level (or boss fight I guess, but that hasn't happened to me so far), if you don't fire at something fast enough or race somewhere quick enough. When that happens you continue from a nearby point. It might be frustrating for someone who can't figure out what to do and keeps dying, but once you know what to do it's not bad at all. Even then, I'd be surprised if anyone got "stuck" on this game. it leads you from point A to point B pretty easily, and you've got Nick telling you how to beat bosses even when you're already doing it sometimes.

The combat certainly isn't God of War or Ninja Gaiden, but it does more than get the job done. The lock-on system works well. By the end of the game you'll have a variety of attacks that make mowing through zombies go by faster. If you're eager to set up big Sparkle Hunts it'll still take a little time, but it's still a solid combat system.

Even with this game's short length, I think "mediocre" is a tad harsh. I won't sit here and bash IGN like I don't stop here everyday and read an article, but I will say that they are not the only opinion out there. For games like this(well ALL games, but especially "niche" titles) it's really important to get multiple opinions.

Xbox Live: What Are We Paying For? (Part 1)

Last week was one of the best weeks Playstation Plus members have ever had.

Sony released several high profile games for free at once, including the all new Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

I look at that, and what Sony's been doing with their Playstation Plus service, and it makes me wonder just what we're paying for over on Xbox Live.

For years they've had gamers paying for the "privilege" of playing their online games, even though the vast majority of them are peer-to-peer, not on dedicated servers.

So just what are we paying $60 a year for?

Exclusive demos and betas? Maybe, but Playstation Plus offers that.

Cloud Saves? Microsoft was getting our money for years and didn't offer Cloud Saves until Sony started offering them with Playstation Plus. Before that, it took them several years to stop forcing gamers to buy Memory Units to transport their saves, and let them use their USB sticks instead.

Party chat? This is one of the few areas where Microsoft has the clear advantage. Being able to chat with up to 7 of your friends at once across all games and apps is something all systems should have.

Voice Messaging? Again, having the option to send a voice message instead of typing out one is great.

How about text chat and text messaging? No advantage there, PS3 also offers those, with the added ability to send pictures that aren't taken with a special camera.

So aside from party chat, which wasn't part of the original Xbox Live service before the 360 by the way, just what are we paying $60 a year for?

Access to digital entertainment?

Apps such as Netflix, ESPN and HBO GO, all of which you already have to pay for access to anyway, get more support from Microsoft than their own Community Games. If you're not a Gold Member you can't access them, or play the games you paid for.

Along with our $60(originally $50, before ESPN) a year, there are advertisements on every blade of the dashboard except "Settings". Obviously those ads bring in revenue. That revenue should be used to improve whatever we're paying for, and provide exclusive content to those of us who pay for it, but really have you seen anything worthwhile from Xbox Live lately?

Maybe we're paying for the right to use an outdated system of bartering?

If you want to buy games or DLC for games, you have to buy Microsoft Points. In most cases, you end up buying more points than you need, which of course will more often than not lead you right back to the Marketplace to (hopefully) find something else you want to buy.

At the end of it all, you're usually left with a few points that you can't really use anywhere else. It's a carnival type system that has been called out by many for years. Microsoft claims to be phasing it out, meanwhile they're giving away 1,000,000 points and "paying" Xbox Live Rewards members 20 points a month to take quick surveys. Somehow I don't think that system is going anywhere come January 1st, 2013.

So what are we really paying for?

If all you want to do is play your games online, Sony and Nintendo don't charge you for that privilege. Microsoft does, and likely will continue to do so until enough people complain about it. Thing is, so many people are content to pay for Xbox Live even though they shouldn't have to.

When you pay for Playstation Plus, it's because you want more games and features to improve your service, it's not because you want to unlock the online feature of the game you just bought.

If you agree with this post, take a moment(or many, as their customer service sucks) to call Microsoft's 800 number and ask them what we're paying for. Maybe they'll be able to tell you.