Ho Ho Ho! Now that Christmas is over, to what will we look forward?

I hope you had the happiest of holidays and enjoyed your time off of work today.  If you did have to work, I hope you managed to find some joy in this day.

I received, as my gifts, the Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 (a match to my brother’s; backyard Gears of War battles have already ensued), a selection of graphic novels (including V for Vendetta, which I had read and donated to our public library–and then regretted doing so), and money which will go towards my new computer next year (which I am building with the help of our system administrator at work).

My little brother received an iPod Touch, which makes me feel like I now NEED an iPhone.  I can’t have my little brother being more hip than I.  He also received some pretty cool games.  I didn’t get any games because I already had all the games I wanted for now.  I did get a GameStop gift card that will go towards a new PC game in the near future.

There is, however, a sense of sadness to this day in that it’s all over with.  Even in adulthood, Christmas is like the climax of the year, the moment you all wait for, and then you open your presents and you put together your toys and it’s all over with.  Now we have to wait a whole ‘nother year for trees and snowmen and toys.  Bummer.

Oh well, the good news is that the first quarter of ‘09 is going to be slow business for gamers, so we can catch up on last year’s hits and save up for the fall.  If it’s anything like this year, I’m thinking of picking up a second job.

Turkey…and STREET FIGHTER II! And “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down!”

I hope my readers (all two or three of them) had a great Thanksgiving.  If you’re not from the States, then I just plain hope you had a great day today.  While the jaded and cynical part of me says that the reasons behind observing Thanksgiving have more to do with the economy than actually, you know, giving thanks, the kid inside of me says that it would be really awesome if the whole world sat aside one day to rest, reconnect with friends and family, eat lots of food, and think about all the great things that have happened to us in the past year.

Such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.  First of all, I don’t think that title is long enough.  Capcom should have tacked on “old school revival” there at the end.  Then, the acronym could be SSF2THDROSR; the greatest acronym ever.

I have, and always will, suck at fighting games, but since I grew up in the nineties I loved Street Fighter II (despite my suckiness).  Many a fourth-grade lunch period was spent arguing over which franchise was superior: Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.  While I gladly concede that MK had a better story and a more fully-realized fantasy world, SF always had more depth and complexity when it came to mechanics; of course, in the fourth grade, what I said was more like “But all the guys in Street Fighter II, have like more moves and stuff!”  Ah, childhood innocence.

My friends all preferred MK, mostly because they had…issues…involving violence.  You see, while I was the glasses-wearing fat geek, all of my “friends” were the athletic types from rich families; in other words, bullies with an entitlement complex and sociopath tendencies.  Of course they liked MK better: you could rip out somebody’s spine in it!  You could totally set somebody on fire.  Sure, every character had the same basic move set–right down to how those basic moves worked–but it had BUCKETS OF BLOOD!  BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!

I wonder what my friends are up to now?  I wonder how many of them needed counseling, are now abusive boyfriends/husbands, or finally came to peace with whatever demons they had wrestling inside of them.

I don’t know why I just told that story, except to say that SSF2THDROSR (I’m calling it that whether Capcom wants me to or not) is, for me, more of a trip down memory lane than Mega Man 9.  It brought back all those birthday parties at the skating rink, where my fat ass was stuck playing video games because I couldn’t skate.  It brought back one of my friends trying to convince me that Ryu was a “Shotokan ninja,” though his mastery of ninjitsu was not mentioned anywhere in the manual, the short-lived comics series, any video game magazine, or anywhere.  It brought back not-so-fond memories of CPU opponents being mind-reading machines that never, ever allowed for one single mistake (Easy just means you won’t be beaten quickly).  It’s all awesome, and I highly recommend this title, especially if you’re too young to remember the first time SF2 came around.

I do have to find fault with Capcom calling versus mode “multiplayer” however.  Seriously Capcom?  Multiplayer?  This is a one-on-one fighting game; it’s VERSUS MODE OR NOTHING.

Anyway, when I wasn’t playing SSF2THDROSR or Fallout 3, I was eating and watching TV.  First of all, Cartoon Network pulled off the greatest Rick Roll ever at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  If you missed it, you can find a video here.  Second of all, I saw Jingle All the Way for, like, the zillionth time.  Really.  During the Holiday season at my house, that movie is weekly–sometimes daily–viewing.  I love it.  It’s not a good movie, not even a little, but it’s one of my favorite holiday movies simply because it’s so bizarre.  I mean, it seems like your typical holiday affair, but when you really let it sink in, you realize that it takes place in some alternate reality where the absurd is not just everyday, but people don’t even freaking notice it.  It’s not something easily described by words; if you’ve never seen it, please see it at least once (without the MST3K riff tracks!).

Well, I will not be getting up at 3 AM to hunt down sweet Black Friday deals.  If I want a GPS navigator bad enough, I’ll pony up the $10 I would save by standing in line for three hours, and all the video game deals are for stuff I either already have or don’t want, even at AMAZING DISCOUNTS!  So the plan for tonight is to play Left 4 Dead until my eyes bleed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hot Cocoa vs. Hot Chocolate

It’s the holidays, which means you have a perfectly good excuse for guzzling obscene amounts of your favorite warm beverage and enjoying a massive caffeine rush.  Caffeine leads to some really interesting conversations; on WoW last night my guildies and I talked about zombie ninjas and zombie pirates, and and before you know it vikings riding dragons-with-lasers-on-their-heads came up.  I was jacked up on hot cocoa, and hence the catalyst of this awesomeness–with more than a little help from one guildie who I think was also popped on some kind of legal drug.

For many people, the holiday beverage of choice is hot cocoa…or is it hot chocolate?  You see, there is a difference.  Hot cocoa is made with cocoa powder and sugar dissolved in warm milk (the basis for hot cocoa mix: often powdered milk and sweetened cocoa powder).  Hot chocolate is melted chocolate mixed with slightly warmer milk.  There is a difference between the two: hot cocoa tends to be creamier, with the milk being the dominant ingredient, and have a more robust chocolate taste (since it is made from cocoa).  Hot chocolate, on the other hand, has a silkier texture and a richer, yet more mellow, chocolate taste: kind of like how barbecque sauce is more flavorful, but hot sauce has more of a POW! to it.

Speaking of hot sauce, the best hot cocoa has a pinch of cayenne–or at least cinnamon–in it.  My preference is for the cocoa.  It’s easier to make, is more complex, has a cozier feel to it.  Hot chocolate is more decadent (especially with a mixture of milk and heavy cream) but doesn’t have the satisfaction of a well-made cup of hot cocoa (which, as I said, is easier to make, but it is also way easier to mess up).

And yes, I am a little jacked up on hot cocoa right now.

Zombies and Coca-Cola Health Potions

I’m older and jaded than I used to be, but I still love the holidays; and since I’m a fat kid, nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like food.  Turkey, stuffing, cranberry chutney, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, pumpkin pie, and Coca-Cola.  Yes, Coca-Cola puts in the mood for the holidays.  Ever since I was a kid and I saw those polar bear commercials and the commericals with the trucks and the little kids chanting “Santa packs are coming,” I associated Coca-Cola with the holidays.  The fact that Coca-Cola puts out the best Christmas-themed bottles helps; a recent design is the ornament-shaped bottles.  I love these bottles because they get me in the holiday spirit (well, they help) and they remind me of health potions from every RPG ever.  Seriously: skinny neck, short and fat body–if you’ve played any RPG on any console or rig and used a health potion, you know of what I speak.

Of course, RPGs will have to take a break for a moment: Left 4 Dead dropped today, and after playing the demo, there was no way I could wait until next year to play it.  I just finished “No Mercy” with a great group of guys (one whom I swear was stoned), and it was some of the best fun I’ve had rolling multiplayer ever.  If Horde mode is incredibly awesome, then Left 4 Dead–in any shape, form or fashion–is incredibly awesome cooked in a spoon.  Definitely multiplayer game of the year.