For those of you not aware, an employee of Wal-Mart was killed the morning of Black Friday in New York, and two others were shot at a Toys ‘R’ Us in California, one of them the age of six. It is the result of people so focused with greed that they do not care for anyone but themselves. All they care about is THEY are the ones to get the latest deal, or THEY are the ones to get a present for their friend/spouse/child/relative, and they will fight anyone else tooth and nail for it.

Or at least, that is how the stories typically go.

I’ve already heard our capitalistic society being blamed for this behavior, as well as the commercialist holiday of Christmas. I do not believe either of these things are to blame, though, and that is the real tragedy. After all, I love the concept of capitalism because it has a history of breeding innovation in the face of competition. Just look at the past 100 years of our society. Or, for an example anyone reading my blog can relate to, look at the latest video game consoles. Microsoft came in with online gaming to try and get a real hold on the market, and has since evolved what that means for a gaming console. Nintendo came up with a new method of play, as well as learned to focus on a completely different market. Without fans nagging Sony to have a “real online presence”, they would have stayed with the same strategy they had for Playstation 2. Because all three companies are in such strong competition with each other, they each are forced to evolve the market instead of letting it stagnate.

As for Christmas, I must admit I am a bit biased since I have some religious investment in the holiday. However, just because I like Christmas doesn’t mean I like seeing commercials for it appearing the day after Halloween, or the massive crowds at the malls. I especially hate the mall crowds, having lived in a densely populated area of New Jersey where the roads aren’t built for such traffic for most of my life. That doesn’t mean that the holiday itself is horrible, or its traditions. I love buying gifts for friends and family. I don’t ask people what they want, but look around and find things that just scream out their name. When I give someone a gift that is a genuine surprise, I am filled with delight. I find more joy in giving than I do in receiving, in addition to all the spiritual value I find in the holiday.

The reason why Black Friday tragedies occur, as well as others during the season, is not because of Capitalism or Christmas. Companies have learned that people can be manipulated with these sales and advertisements. If people can be manipulated, then there is something wrong with the people.

It should also be worth noting that this madness does not occur everywhere. My mother went out in the morning while I stayed home to take advantage of the sales online, avoiding the crowds and crazy folks willing to crush me. She came back with no gripes or complaints, as none of the stores she went to had trouble. Kohl’s was crowded, but the shoppers weren’t rude. K-Mart was practically empty (probably because everyone was at Wal-Mart). The mall and Best Buy were stuffed with customers, but none of them were pushing or shoving to compete for a deal. It was merely crowded was all.

My purpose in writing all of this is to just point out that it isn’t a problem with the system, the holiday, or even that this kind of tragedy occurs everywhere. The real problem is that these events and ideas have revealed a darker side because of the people in our society. That such things can happen is not the fault of Christmas or Capitalism, but the fault of greedy, uncaring people that cannot learn to live without. These ideas were not taught by the corporations having the sales, or in the countless films or television specials about Christmas.

Make sure that when you blame something, you know who it is you ought to blame.

By now you should be aware that Robotech is one of them things I be lovin’. While at this stage I would never choose to watch it over the original Macross television show, it still holds a fond place in my heart. When I was a young’un, I knew all about violence and death, and could easily spot when a television show was trying to fool us kids with parachutes and friendly terms like “send you to another dimension”. Yet Robotech was the first show that didn’t play around. Parachutes weren’t launched as a plane blew up. People died every episode, and they made sure you knew.

It treated me as an intelligent human being, not a dumb little twat wanting an animated toy commercial.

So along comes Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Harmony Gold’s attempt to cash in on its twenty-to-thirty-something year old fanbase by providing an “ending” to the show and some blood and foul language to match the age of the audience.

Somehow they took the unique feeling of Robotech, which didn’t feel like “just another anime”, and made it “just another anime…in space”.

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Dead Space. Amazing game. As a game, it is designed incredibly well. It provides a nearly flawless experience, fun to the point that you don’t pay attention to any of the flaws.

That is, unless you’re looking for an actual survival horror. See, there are plenty of design elements that work well for Dead Space as a shooter, but horrible for it to be the survival horror that EA Redshores Studio labeled it to be. While on harder difficulties these matters are less of an issue, they still interfere with the horror aspect.

Granted, what games like Resident Evil and other survival horror titles had going for them is considered bad game design. Poor controls, no checkpoints, limited saves, incredibly limited inventory, these all contributed to the horror in a different way than just making you jump. You were actually afraid of the next encounter, because you’d have to deal with clumsy controls, and if you died you would have to replay half an hour or more. Not to mention you aren’t sure if you have enough ammo to be prepared, or if you even have the right kind.

Dead Space eliminates all of that. Granted no game would be allowed to get away with horrible controls these days, and there are still great ways to balance that such as A.I., where the enemies come from, how quickly they move, etc. However, just about any other problem, and more, are eliminated from the equation.

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There aren’t many sequels I can think of that feel so similar to their predecessor they may as well be one in the same. Gears of War 2 has the same formula and feel of the first title, so much so that it feels wrong to even call it a sequel. While technically it stands on its own as a game, considering the lack of depth to the franchise’s story and setting, it is better thought of as a continuation of the first game. It isn’t Gears of War 2, it is Gears of War: Part Two.

To give you a better understanding, think of the Alien trilogy compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The three Alien films tell the overall story of Ripley and her battle against the Alien, but each film has its own isolated plot and atmosphere that allows them to each stand on their own. The Lord of the Rings films, on the other hand, are all one larger story. The Two Towers doesn’t stand on its own, but rather it continues the tale started with Fellowship of the Ring. This is how Gears of War 2 feels overall.

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I was all set for this Fall release schedule. I had picked out a handful of titles I was going to purchase on day one, and had put titles I was unsure of aside to wait for a price drop following the holidays. Plenty of excellent games should be down to $40 by February, if not more so. I was going to grab the three or four games I really wanted, put the rest on a Christmas wishlist and grab the rest at a cheaper price in ‘09.

Then I played the demo for Mirror’s Edge.

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