Cavi

I know what you mean. Took me a good while to do that level. If you are stuck at the part in the large area where it looks like there is nowhere to go (except for a locked door), there are some crates which you can jump up onto. Do that and you should be on your way to progressing in the level. I should have the game finished within the next day or two, so yay for that. And remember folks, Angel Season Two out on DVD tomorrow. Wahoo!

Angel.

I haven't really read any of the regular novels (even though I own a few), but I know people who put over the comics/graphic novels.

Yeah, the movie isn't canon, so that particular Merrick doesn't really exist in the Buffyverse. As for Brimley dude, while they don't refer to him as Merrick in the actual episode/script, he is called just that in official documentation. I have never been fond of treating stuff that is not said, done, or referred to in an episode as canon, but since it's official, it counts as such. So Wilford guy is the Merrick, Donald Sutherland be damned. I know the Buffy comic "The Origin" takes the movie and rewrites it while keeping the canon in mind.

Yeah, no voting took place. They were just eps chosen for the whole Back to School bit. I have some great news - another Buffy soundtrack CD is set for release on September 30th~! It's called Radio Sunnydale: Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Music From The Television Series. Virgin Records being the label this time around. Here is the track listing: 1. Buffy Main Title Theme - The Breeders 2. Goodbye to You (Bronze Mix) - Michelle Branch 3. Bohemian Like You - Dandy Warhols 4. There's No Other Way - Blur 5. Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Melanie Doane 6. Sound of the Revolution - Lunatic Calm 7. Out of This World - Bush 8. Pavlov's Bell - Aimee Mann 9. Stop Thinking About It - Joey Ramone 10. Key - Devics 11. Ballad for Dead Friends - Dashboard Prophets 12. Original Score - Rob Duncan So it's pretty much a Season Six and Seven ordeal. I wish more scoring was on it though, since I'm such a mark for that stuff. I'm guessing the one that is included is the Buffy/Spike theme Duncan created this past season.

I watched a bit of the marathon earlier. I don't know about the recent afternoon schedules on FX, but their morning ones have been all wonky. Whenever Buffy is shown in the afternoon, they reair the next morning. But when it isn't shown in the afternoon, they go to their other cycle of eps for the morning shows. They were just on Season Five earlier in the week, but now they have jumped ahead to Six. It's annoying that they skipped nearly a whole season. Hopefully they get it back on track.

A new Whedonverse factoid: When I was looking for pics for my current sig the other day, I made my way on over to Dido's official website and saw that they had the video for her new single "White Flag" up. And guess who was in it? Boreanaz~! He sports a mustache in it. Kind of an odd look for him. Here is the linkage if you want to check it out. Quality of the vid isn't very good, though.

Wohoo! I will have to test it out later. Yeah, she made it just after she had her baby. And yes, they have a flashback in "Becoming - Part I" where we see Buffy's previous Watcher, Merrick. Dude gives off a Wilford Brimley vibe.

Yeah, I got the Xbox version. All three are the same, outside of technical aspects like graphics and the PS2 version has an extra interview with Marsters where he talks about his PS2 collection. My problem with the stake button is that in the first game, you simply needed to press the Use button (Y) to stake. The way it is now, it feels out of place when in battle.

SiTs need to be represented on that DVD cover! Well, actually no, but like Youth said, some Scoobage would be good. On another subject, I got the game. I typed this up elsewhere, but here are my thoughts nonetheless: So I just got done with my second session with the game...I'm unimpressed and disappointed. First off, it has what I consider to be a fairly large flaw, that being the camera. It is simply horrible. While you had the ability to re-center the camera right behind Buffy at any time in the first game, such a feature is nowhere to be seen here. You just can turn it left and right using the right analog stick. Not being able to re-center has a direct impact on the gameplay. Say you are walking around the cemetery, looking for baddies. Out of nowhere, a group of vamps come up from behind and knock you down. That is annoying in itself, but then they start gang raping you. You start to fight back, but guess what? You can't see who the heck you are beating on because you are facing the camera and you can't quickly re-center it to your character's point of view. Instead, you have to stop fighting and use your thumb to manually adjust it. Absolutely dreadful. This can lead to stupid deaths, and I can only imagine how bad this will be if there are platforming elements later on in the game. The fighting engine doesn't seem as smooth as the one found in the first. Oftentimes I found myself hitting nothing but thin air rather than some baddie. You would think holding the strafe button would help, but the problem here is that you don't exactly lock onto an opponent. You hold the strafe button and you might just lock onto nothing and start doing combos to the villainous night air. There is now a dedicated stake button, in the form of the small black action button on the Xbox controller. This is cumbersome. For some bizarre reason, I couldn't dust a baddie with a shovel. Nor have I found a way to decapitate an enemy with a sword or an axe. When using those weapons, I had to press the stake button to take out a stake, stake them, and then re-equip the previous weapon. Very ugh. And speaking of the inventory system, it's crap. If you are in dire need of a med pack during battle, you simply cannot pause the game and use one. You have to do it during battle. What makes matters worse is that to select stuff in your inventory, you have use the D-Pad (like in the first game). Because of that, you are momentarily without movement and that may spell the end of you if you are on the verge of dying. The AI is mostly of the typical beat 'em up variety (gang up tactics, etc.). The game reeks of unpolishedness and stupid design. Other than the aforementioned camera, sometimes when jumping, your character won't actually do the jumping animation. Instead, he or she will just go up into the air and do his or her walking animation. During cutscenes, characters don't actually open doors. When Ethan first appeared, this door magically opened for him and when he left, it magically closed. Granted, he is a pimp and probably has the power to do that, but it happens with other characters as well. You know how Buffy couldn't swim in the first game? Well, Willow is the victim this time around as if you step into a pool of blood with her, you're dead. Brilliant. I was stuck in one little area with Will for about ten minutes looking for some stupid key. How freakin' boring and tiresome (the whole level in itself took me nearly an hour to finish). So far, I find the game to be just that - boring. Hooray for Eurocom. I had more fun watching the interviews found in the Extras section than actually playing. A couple are available right from the start, but you unlock the others as you progress through the levels. The compression of the videos isn't too good, though the interviews themselves are fairly entertaining and of decent length. The Joss one is quite recent; filmed in the last three months, as he talks about the end of the series. Hopefully the game gets better in the coming levels.

The new Buffy game is out for the consoles today. Already got my copy for Xbox, but I have yet to play it. I read that Emma is NOT in, though...weaksauce.

It will certainly be odd for me with no new Buffy. I picked up the new 2004 calendar yesterday. Jobs to the 2003 one, but it's still pretty good.

I think both Xbox controllers are pretty weaksauce. The action buttons on the S should be 3x3 across, not down. Dumb design.

In my mind, Willow > Buffy > Cordy.

KOC is a top notch wrestling game. I have both discs. In my mind, it's one of the two premiere wrestling game series out there (the other being All-Star Pro Wrestling). Overall, I prefer the recently released ASPW III over it. I think that game captures more of the real life aspects of wrestling than KOC does. KOC feels robotic at times (guys showing little in the way of emotion and selling, not that great of transition spots, stuff like that). Note that the first ASPW is said to be rather bad, though. Square fixed things up for I, and even more so with III. Each series has its down distinct feel, which is a good thing. This Spike vs. Square-Enix wrestling game war should be excellent. Have fun with KOC!

PS2 version, as the Dual Shock badly owns the other controllers in my mind. And Hei is one pimp dude.

I haven't read much on it, but I know the main concept is that a deceased member of the show's family is the narrator. Have heard that it's Sixth Sense-ish.

Yeah, I read that the other day about Charisma. She also said that while she is quite upset over it, she believes Joss will not disappoint in terms of the storyarc. I wonder what the real deal is. I really hope she does return, as she can't go out like she did! In other Whedonverse news, word going around the net today is that Eliza's new Fox show Tru Calling has been pushed back to midseason or later. There will be some more recasting (this is the third time, I believe) and the pilot and episodes filmed thus far will be reshot. Ouch. Taking its fall timeslot is...none other than Marti Noxon's own show, Still Life.

FX always cuts out little bits here and there. I will be waiting for a specific line and then they skip it and I will weep. It's really bad when the edit is during a scene with some big musical piece, since it can obviously be heard then (like just yesterday at the end of "Amends" when Buffy and Angel are walking through snowy Sunnydale). Word to that.

Capcom Fighting Game + Buffy Universe = Endless Possibilities

I have the first Buffy game on Xbox. It's quality stuff. I think it's the best beat 'em up of the past two gaming generations. I know that really isn't saying much at all considering what the genre has turned into, but it's a good game nonetheless. It does not use the same engine as the Bruce Lee title. It uses the Slayer Engine, created and used exclusively by the game's developer, The Collective. It should be noted that they did not develop the new Buffy game though. Eurocom did. They used their own engine which can be seen in NightFire and Harry Potter. It is said to be very similar to the first Buffy title, and after viewing videos of it, I can attest to that. PS2 was the main SKU though, so the word is that Xbox version doesn't look as good as its predecessor. They should have just gotten The Collective to do the game again, as with a new developer, I kind of fear they might mess up the nice fighting engine. Everybody except for Sarah and Alyson lent their voices to Chaos Bleeds. SMG didn't do the first either, but Aly did, so that is disappointing she didn't return. I have yet to hear Robin Sachs (Ethan) in any videos yet, but since they said everybody is in there...he better be in there. I don't think Giles is in, as I have seen no mention of him. He was in the first. The game is indeed coming out for all three consoles. And I'm a fan of Season Four.

I missed both Charisma and Amy! Ugh!!

That scene f'n owned! The dual pistols and then the shotgun...so badass!

*bump for post*

The Beast just totally owns the Ubervamps. Doesn't help that the Ubies turned into one-hit-and-they're-done-for jobbers in the final episode.