More Of-Less Of #500

Can you believe we're up to number 500 already?

More of: Nirvana Songs
Why is it that Tupac has released 10,000 songs since he died, yet Kurt Cobain has only released one (on a greatest hits box set). I know there's more out there and it is now been 12 years since his suicide. I've heard rumors that there are legal battles between the band and Courtney Love or something, but this is ridiculous. What could either parties be gaining by not releasing them? As a music enthusiast I demand more Nirvana!!




Less of: Ping-Pong Video Games
When I first heard they were going to make a ping-pong video game, the first thing I assumed was that it would be a Wii remake of the failed Nintendo version wherein you got to use a paddle that had absolutely no collision detection to where the ball was on the screen. My attitude towards this was the same as my complaint towards the original: Why not just play ping-pong? Ping-pong is relatively cheap and you only need two (or you could just play against a wall or something) people to play it. Why go virtual? Well, my initial confusion would be no match for what would come later...

In fact, the new Ping-pong game would not be a Nintendo remake, but instead would be on X Box 360. And to make it even more bizarre it would be made by Rockstar Games. For those of you not familar with this company, it basically makes one game: Grand Theft Auto. In fact just about every other game Rockstar has ever made is basically a copy of GTA: State of Emergency, Max Payne, and Red Dead Revolver. The only exception was a poor racing game called Midnight Club. So, one might ask, as I did, why is Rockstar going to make a ping-pong game?? The closest thing I could come to an explanation was that perhaps Rockstar was going to take a "sport" no one has done anything with in decades and "Blitzify" it...that is, make it extreme. That's a pretty strange idea, but I guess it could be pulled off.

Well, when I actually went to play a demo of the game I discovered that my assumptions were wildly wrong. When I began playing I immediately started pressing random buttons trying to figure out how I could pull out a chainsaw or rape the mother of my opponent, etc. To my surprise, there were no weapons or combos or even crazy looking characters. So, I kept playing the game, this time trying to figure out how to do a super smash or power hit or something. Makers of tennis games already have realized that the sport is so boring that you need some kind of wierd power up to make it interesting (In terms of how fun games of a type are, Tennis is about 1.5 times as good as Ping- Pong. For those keeping score, Tennis is roughly equivalent to Baseball which is 1/2 as good as Basketball, which is 3/4 as good as Hockey, which is 7/8 as good as Soccer, which is 1/2 as good as Football.) However, this game has none of those. Yes, that's correct. It is a SIMULATION ping-pong game...made by Rockstar games. When I realized this, I burst out laughing. This has to be a joke. Why would anyone want to play a well-rendered simulation ping-pong game where you can't create characters and have to use dorky Koreans? This has to be the stupidest game ever made. Who the hell greenlighted this madness??!