Redeem Yourself and Save the World

Sounds a bit pretentious, doesn't it? Well, you can relax because this has nothing to do with anything of any real import. It would be a waste for me to propose a world-redeeming philosophy or soul-saving wisdom when I have a readership that can be counted on one hand after a thumb-removing bandsaw accident. Nope, this entry is about a videogame. Goodbye, 3/4 of my fan-base, and frankly, I'm surprised you stuck around this long, Landon.
The videogame I'm talking about is Fallout 3, the post-apocalyptic open-world role-playing first-person-shooter (or PAOWRPGFPS for short) set in the Washington, DC area in the year 2277.


Fancy seeing you here...





Many hear 2277 and roll their eyes, remembering nothing but the uber-sleek depictions of our future. No, this game is not trying to recreate a world cut out of the Star Wars universe. Part of the beauty of the game (aside from the breathtaking vistas that greet the player throughout) is the ambience of a world whose music, clothing, and language ceased to change sometime in the 1950s. Although nuclear war didn't cover the world until 2077, forcing those who could afford the privilege to hide in underground communities called "Vaults", burnt-out cars closely resembled the '50s T-birds and Bel-Airs, old-school Rhythm and Blues and crooning rock n' roll are prevalent, and leather jacket & faded jeans are the popular fashion.
Anyway, the reason I play video games, aside from the occasional football or racing game, is to enjoy a good story. It's the same reason I love a good book, movie, or TV show. And in this respect, Fallout 3 is a stunner, with an intricate mythology, incredible attention to detail, and a world populated with hundreds of characters with personalities, daily schedules, and opportunities for interaction. The game begins with your birth, and through the brilliantly designed scenes that follow, you build your character and learn the mechanics of the game. Upon birth, depending on your choice, your father-a doctor-announces the arrival of a boy or girl, and you are given the name of your choosing. You learn basic movement and object manipulation by crawling around, reading colorful books, and playing with toys as a cooing baby. The first nineteen years of your life in the Vault pass by in short segments as you learn about your wrist-mounted Pip-Boy (the in-game menu where you track your inventory, skills, health, and quest information-it's an amazingly immersive element of the game), take an aptitude test in which you unknowingly tell the game how you plan to play, and learn to shoot the BB gun you get for your 16th birthday.
The introductory part of the game culminates when, sometime in your nineteenth year, you awake to find out your father has left the safety of the Vault (in the two hundred years since the dropping of the bombs, no one has entered or exited the Vaults for fear of exposure to the ruined wasteland outside). Your father's research assistant has been killed, and the Vault authorities are coming to find you. With help from a lifelong friend, you escape the Vault police and venture out of the Vault to track daddy down.
At the moment you leave the Vault, you are greeted by a fantastic view of the barren ruins of Washington, DC, and although it may seem unlikely, every inch of what you see is fully explorable. The training wheels are taken off, and the player is left entirely to their own devices. You are given minor clues as to where the search for your father might start, and you can pursue these, which will lead you through the game's main quest. Or, if you decide that the ramshackle houses and derelict, wartorn elementary school to your west seem more interesting, you are free to explore. One should travel cautiously, however-the wasteland is crawling with feral animals, wandering Raiders who live to terrorize and plunder, mercenary groups who will either be friendly or hostile, and dangerous mutants. The actions of the game's inhabitants depends largely on your choices throughout the game, which carry long-reaching consequences as you progress: do-gooders will no doubt attract the ire of power-hungry men eager to place bounties on your head, while nefarious acts will earn you mistrust among the law-abiding citizens found in the game's numerous cities and smaller settlements.


Megaton, built around an undetonated bomb, is the first site in your search for your father.




With so many opportunities for conflict throughout the 15-20 hour main storyline (and the potantial 100's of hours of supplementary content-seriously, there's so much crap you can do which have no bearing on the main story, but which flesh out the world and provide opportunities for you to gain experience, wealth, and better equipment), the game gives you the tools to survive. Weapons range from handheld melee types (brass knuckles, baseball bats, or the homemade "Shishkabob", made from a lawnmower blade, propane tank, and other parts-it essentially constitutes a flaming sword that is great fun), to pistols, hunting & assault rifles, energy-based weapons, and even missle launchers and grenades. Attract a group of enemies with a couple of stray shots, plant a homemade mine around the corner, then watch the firework as the aggressors round the corner to fight. Good times, good times. My two favorite weapons were the Fat Man, which shot rarely-found miniature nukes (don't use on enemies within 50 yards of yourself-the blast is big!), and the homemade Rock-It Launcher, an endlessly entertaining contraption which shoots the random junk that litters the game. Cups, cutting boards, dinner plates, bent tin cans, clipboards, pre-war money, pool balls, and other otherwise useless junk suddenly becomes powerful ammo, allowing the player to save their 5.56 mm and .32 rounds for tougher conflicts.
Aside from the weapons used, Fallout 3 also gives players another useful tool in combat: VATS-the VaultTec Assisted Targeting System. While the player always has the option of fighting in the standard FPS style, gunning away on their own, they may also push a button to engage VATS. This pauses the action, focuses on the enemy, and (depending on things like character stats, distance, angle, and weapon) displays pecentage-based chances of hitting the enemy in the selected part of the body. One can choose to aim at the torso, head, limbs, or even the weapon they carry. This carries with it awesome potentialities. Is that mutated Deathclaw too fast and strong to be engaged in a close fight? Target its leg and cripple it, reducing it to a slow hobble while you keep a safe distance to finish the job (mines are great for this, too). In the mood for some ultra-violence? Take a raider's arm off and let them run away until they bleed out (not that I ever did that-I played the quintessential noble hero). If there are multiple enemies in range, a flick of the left stick switches between them, while the right stick allows targeting of specific body parts. Depending on how many Action Points the character has, the player can use VATS to line up a string of multiple targeted shots. Once the sequence of actions has been selected, tap the A button, and the action ensues in a slow-motion, cinematic feel as the hero takes the shots the player has selected. It's a great system, and one that displays the game's role-playing leanings.


I'd rather you didn't get so close.




Despite its fast-paced shooting mechanics, Fallout 3 is a role-playing game. Puzzles, enemies, and quests offer opportunities to increase one abilities, and the grand majority of actions are dependent on these statistics. A higher Barter rating results in higher earnings and lower prices from merchants. Sneak ratings determine how well you can stealth around without an enemy noticing you (a good Sneak and Pickpocket rating give you the opportunity to take things from opposing characters, as well as plant a live grenade in their pocket if you want-how cool is that?!). Strength determines how much junk you can carry before you are overburdened and fatigues. Higher skills allow players to hack computer terminals and pick locks...and the list goes on and on.



The Pip Boy interface organizes everything you need to know.


I've got to stop. It's a great game, with a wonderful storyline of betrayal & redemption, a wealth of content to be discovered, and a sly, humorous commentary on '50s patriotism and culture in America. Long playtime is made manageable by the ability to save anywhere, anytime, so there's none of the frustration of having to wait for a save point before turning the game off. It's sensitive, hilarious, horrifying, and hugely entertaining, sometimes within the same few minutes of play. Play it the way you want, go where you want to go, treat others however you like (just beware the consequences!), and have a good time. Despite a couple of nagging shortcomings (stiffly animated characters run into each other, occasional lack of appropriate responses to player actions from the AI-controlled characters), Fallout left me very impressed, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good story.

Don't Kid Yourselves, Texas

I'm no professional sports journalist. I am paid neither dollars nor cents for my input on the matter. Hey, at best, I'm expecting the same three people to read this blog, ponder its words, and leave a comment. At worst, I will be attacked by Flying Motorcycle Bear, and this entry will never even see the light of day. You think it can't happen? Rest assured, it can.

Anyway, back to the neety-greety. This has been the first time in roughly a decade I have closely followed college football. I have watched every OU game this season. I have tracked individual and team stats. I have watched other Big 12 teams to better understand our competition. I have even learned players' names, negating any need to yell, "Run that ball, Number 7!! Run it good!!"

So, I believe I know what I'm talking about when I say that Texas has absolutely no right to throw such a hissy fit over their standings as they relate to my Sooners. Let me quickly address the single argument upon which Texas balances their claim to Big 12 leadership: their 45-35 victory over Oklahoma in this season's Red River Shootout (or Showdown...whatever). Sure, their head-to-head victory may signify to UT fans that the Longhorns deserved the nod to face Missouri for the Big 12 title. Some may argue that, by the same token, Texas Tech deserves the title over UT because the Red Raiders were triumphant in their head to head matchup with the Longhorns (and save the "Tech only won in the last play" bit-the only time UT ever had the lead in that game was in the last minute and a half of the fourth quarter, and they still couldn't stay ahead!). Some may contend that the fact that OU proceeded to wipe their rears with the team that beat the Longhorns, winning by over 40 points, says much about the teams' relative standings. Yeah, some may say that. Not me. I would just like to remind those who would throw away the remaining season's performance by both teams, relying solely on that one game, that the ONLY reason UT won that game was the injury of Ryan Reynolds.

This guy would've cut your score in half.

Seriously, anyone with half a mind for football could see where UT's offense was going following Reynolds' injury and departure in the early third quarter. Pass after pass was thrown to Reynolds' zone throughout the rest of the game. This, coupled with a few of the worst late hit calls ever made, and some honest-to-goodness decent play from the Longhorns (hey, I can admit when an opponent's deserving...your turn, Tejanos) added up to a relatively close game that, while indicative of Texas' quality football program, comes nowhere close to providing enough evidence that Texas is the best team in the Big 12 South.

In the interest of cutting this short, because I'm on the verge of going on a tangent that will surely reveal how infantile my knowledge of college football really is, I'll just offer two thoughts on the dilemna.
#1: The BCS sucks (yeah, yeah, it's the best we have for now-that's 'cuz nobody's changed it yet), and playoffs are needed. I know alot of folks say that the bowls bring in money. Well, just give bowl names to the various brackets leading up to the championship game. Done and done. None of this paper-rock-scissors quandry would have to happen. The teams in question would return to face each other, and Texas would have to recognize OU's legitimate claim to Big 12 supremacy.
#2: Give OU and UT the championship game. Oklahoma lost to a 5th ranked team on a neutral field; UT lost to 7th-ranked Tech in Lubbock. Florida lost to...an unranked Mississippi team on Florida's home turf? Really??
Which loss is worse?

So, in conclusion (because it's late, I stink, and frankly, I'm too ADD to have written as much as I have), it can be agreed that, while the BCS system may not produce the best matchups in college football, OU has proven that they deserve a shot at the championship this year. Texas, well...you have, too. Apparently, though, the Big 12 can't send two teams to the big game, so we had to send our best. Maybe next year, Austin.

Horns down.

Boomer...

Twilight Review

So, I don't fancy myself much of a critic in that I am not of the mindset that every movie I see has to be groundbreaking or "challenging" to hold my attention. While it's true that some movies just don't appeal to me when I see previews or hear about them-ask my wife and she'll tell you that I often object to seeing something new because it just doesn't attract me-I am not one to scrutinize every aspect of a movie (or album, or whatever) and look for reasons to label a show unworthy. Indeed, every movie is released in response to a demand, and every movie has a target audience that has every right to enjoy it. Except for the Olsen twins movies. Never watch an Olsen twins movie.

Having said that, I was fully prepared to be disappointed in the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. The first in a 4-book series, Twilight begins the story of Bella Swan, a high-school girl who moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy, overcast Forks, Washington.











Pop Quiz: Which is Phoenix, which is Forks?

So once she arrives, Bella soon meets and subsequently falls in love with Edward, a member of the locally-famous-for-their-weirdness Cullen family. Edward, as luck would have it, turns out to be a vampire, as are all of the Cullens. Having adopted their surrogate father's sense of morality, the Cullen family have assumed a "vegetarian" lifestyle-that is, they don't feed on humans, although Bella lays siege to Edward's resolve to maintain this human-friendly diet. This relationship lays the groundwork for the rest of the movie's events, which I won't spoil for anyone who reads this.

As an adaptation, Twilight is surprisingly faithful to the book. As one very suspicious of movie adaptations (Eragon was a debacle, and the Bourne movies, while entertaining and well-done in all respects, were so completely removed from the books in so many ways, they should not have been considered adaptations), I was pleased to find so much in common with what made the book so enjoyable. The plot followed that of the book very carefully, only making revisions when time constraints made it absolutely necessary. These changes did little to remove any of the feelings created during a reading of the book. Indeed, the loss of discovery and character development that plagued The Da Vinci Code in its adaptation were absent here-the screenwriter did a good job keeping the characters as fully developed as those in the book.

Sadly, this same attention to character detail results in various characters (primarily the vampires) acting in ways that are confusing or seemingly pointless to the uninitiated. Had I not read the book and been previously acquainted with the Cullens, I would have been confused at some of Edward's reactions, and would have written off actor Jackson Rathbone as doing his best Edward Scissorhands impression throughout the film. So without previous experience with the characters, much of the movie will seem disorienting and lackluster to some.

With few exceptions, though, the acting was well executed. Whether I have this opinion because I went into the theater expecting a straight-to-CW experience or not is irrelevant. Kristen Stewart did an excellent job conveying Bella's lack of confidence and her inability to relate easily to her high school peers, and Robert Pattinson played a nearly flawless Edward, conveying the vampire's confusion regarding his feelings for Bella, as well as his loathing of the monstrosities he knew he was capable of. While a select few moments had me thinking that I would have directed them differently, the acting throughout was a plus.

My only real qualm with Twilight were the not-so-special effects. I really, really wish the studio had put more than ten bucks into the effects used throughout the film. The vampire's actions were unnaturally blurred to convey great speed, even though much of the intended effect was left lacking-the vampires often looked blurry, not fast. The idea of traversing the forest at inhuman speeds was completely enthralling in the book, but the movie made it seem like Edward was capable of flying, and I found myself looking for the suspension cables in the tree-climbing sequences. And on a final note regarding the lacking special effects: I went into the movie not knowing how they would recreate the effect the sun would have on Edward, and just as I suspected, they weren't able to pull off the effect.

Technical issues aside, though, I thoroughly enjoyed Twilight. Perhaps some think that its high school cast or love story without sex (OMG!! No sex! How unrealistic...in a movie about Vampires!) means that it isn't worth their time. Not true. Just as in a book, good entertainment comes from good character development. If one can be made to care about the characters (Jasper and Emmett need a little TLC for the sequels), investment in the rest will come by default. Twilight did a good job with this, and I have every confidence that high earnings will yield a bigger budget and production values more equal to the great story being told here.

A Pivotal Moment

I am sitting in a computer lab, waiting for 2:25 to get here so that I can fix a projector (which will probably involve plugging it in-who knew?), and I thought I'd go ahead and write a bit about what's really going down in life right now.

In all honesty, I am extremely nervous about the whole dental admissions situation. The average overall GPA of students who matriculate in dental school varies between 3.5 and 3.9. My 3.23 doesn't fit this criteria. This low score is helped in part by the fact that my last few years of schooling are much better than the first-if I were to remove my first two years of college, I'd be sitting at a 3.65. My science GPA is about 3.5, which is competitive, and that's good. The average DAT (Dental Admissions Test) score at OU is about 19, and I earned an 18 both times I took the test. If, by some stroke of bad juju, I don't get in, I've got one more shot at the test, and it's really the only way I can drastically alter my chances (I can't really change my GPA too much at this point). I've spent alot of time observing, and I got great letters of recommendation (thanks, Gabe). Even so, I've been denied by both Las Vegas and Arizona. I've gotten a "maybe" from Buffalo (yeah, New York. Scary.), and I haven't heard anything from either Baylor or San Antonio yet. I don't expect much from them, since I am considered out-of-state everywhere except Oklahoma. This reduces my chances from about 1 in 3 to about 1 in 100.

The silver lining is, of course, Oklahoma's dental school. I have received an invitation to interview with 3 members of their faculty, each in a 30-minute, one-on-one session, on December the 4th. This is awesome, since Oklahoma is the only place I really want to be. I love the state, the school, and besides, family is here. I often feel bad for the distance I have put between my wife and her family, but without a dental school in Utah, staying there indefinitely was never an option. But to move somewhere removed from my family as well would be alot to ask of either me or her. As many already know, Lacey and I are expecting again, and to go to school in Buffalo would entail a cross-country trip with a two-year-old (and not just any two-year-old-we're talking about Coleman here. Coleman.) as well as a baby of less than a month's age. Not if we can help it.

So hopefully, Oklahoma it is. I love the land. The people are friendly. Gas is really, really cheap at the 7-11 30 seconds away. And I've got a job that pays rent on a roomy apartment that has room for our family and a few guests. It's not a bad setup.

Well, hey, it's 2:30, and I've got a projector to fix. Throw some prayers our way. I consider personal interviews to be my strength, so I'm feeling pretty good about being admitted to Oklahoma, and heaven knows we need this. I'm too old to figure out anything else I want to do.

This has been kinda fun.

Erm...so...

I was going to make my first post give an account of my writer's block, but I can't think of anything to write on the subject right now. So yeah, nothing to see here.

Under Construction

Coming Soon...