Echo Chamber Post Game Episode 131

Y'ALL COME DOWNLOAD, Y' HEAR?

-Like most of our episodes, we usually come up with awesome ideas, and one I had was to change all designs of the Confederate Flag to this:


I think it's pretty fair. The South lost the war, and if you're still wearing this thing out of pride, then you're a loser. Like, you do know the Confederacy was all like "WE'RE TAKING OUR BALL AND GOING HOME! IT'S ABOUT ETHICS-" and then the Union was all like "Damn it, eat your broccolli you fuckers"

"Cool, we got all these slaves-"

"Nah, fuck that noise, slavery's illegal, you gotta pay 'em like regular people"

"But States Right's-"

"AMENDMENT! NOW IT'S DOUBLE ILLEGAL" Then Abraham Lincoln gave Robert E. Lee an Attitude Adjustment. John Wilkes Booth, like the fucking smark he is, shot the President in the head.


Now I'm tempted to edit in "Loser Flag" on all the episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard. A lot of work for a token gesture, since we're not getting rid of systemic racism, we're getting rid of one it's symbols. But token gestures make the millz billz.

As much as we like to talk shit about the South and turn it into a punchline, read this first.

Would you like to see more "History With Rhythm Bastard"? Let us know in the comics below!


-RHYTHM BASTARD'S NUZHAWK CHALLENGE:
This is only for any Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game with a "Classic" Mode, where you're required to complete objectives to move on to the next level.

THREE RULES:
1. You must complete enough objectives in ONE TWO-MINUTE RUN to move on to the next level.
2. In any Competition, whenever you finish your first combo or bail, THE HEAT ENDS.
3. NO LEVELING UP ALLOWED


That's it. I was able to finish all of THPS2 and 2X's career modes, but THPS1 uses tapes, and more tapes are required per level to move on, so while I might have enough saved up from previous levels to advance quickly, I can't go back and do the earlier ones.

Plus San Francisco in THPS1 is total bullshit.

-Here's a comic that explains Nuzlocke.

-And here's the Two Best Friends Nuzlocke Run:

-Another ridiculous challenge I heard was one of my friends did a 120 Star Run of Super Mario 64, but every time you died, you had to do 10 push ups. There were other rules of course, but I forget them a year later, but that stands out.

-There are some "Hard Mode" drafts for Magic The Gathering that Jeff was talking about, namely dedicated sets like Unhinged, filled with ridiucouls comedy gimmick cards, and Conspiracy, a set meant to be drafted in an 8 man pod, but played in 2 4-man games. I'd love to draft either one, but Conspiracy is old news at this point, and Unhinged is difficult to find.

Both experiment a lot with the game, with Unhinged making you aware of what the other player is doing (like a card that you lose life if you tap your nails, etc.), and Conspiracy plays around with the fact that A. Other people are playing, and B. The draft format itself.

-MahJong Manga is called MUDAZUMO NAKI KAIKAKU. You can read it here. The Manga Fox Page sums it up as such:

Junichiro Koizumi. Prime Minister of Japan, or God of Mahjong incarnate? Watch him clash with other world titans such as George W. Bush, Kim Jong Il, and Vladimir Putin in the one force that matters in the political world: mahjong. 
 
Like, a very small part of me finds dumb bullshit played 100% straight and serious as this. While I'm sure the comic itself is a play on world politics played from the point of view as a Japanese man, I'm not so sure it works as a series. Maybe a CollegeHumor thing.​

A Much Better Sunday

This week's much nicer jam, while the Status Quo is still changing. Or maybe this always was the status quo, but the powers that be finally recognized it.


Like most of you, I’m very pleased about the Supreme Court decision Friday.
However, don’t unfriend somebody just because they disagree. Instead, be a constant reminder that this change is positive, and, if they’re adults, they’ll suck it up, and you might even change their minds.
Also, if they make arguments like “WHAT NEXT? WE CAN MARRY DOGS?” you can safely assume that they want to have sex with dogs. Do them a favor by posting up sexy dog piuctures on their wall. For kids!


There's also the matter of the Confederate Flag being disregarded by pretty much everyone, save those with the most foolish of prides, but we talk about that a lot in the Echo Chamber Podcast, so I think I'll save it for then.

Either way, this week's SQS was a complete 180 from last week.

ALBUM UPDATE:
#RBforTHPS5 is now in full effect!
I want to be in the next Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game!
So, as a little nudge, I released a new track into the wild (albeit cut down) and set it to a quick recording I did of some Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X:


Track is called "Bastard's Reunion", and while it won't be available until the album comes out, I'm proud of the track looking back, and I think this is the one. 

I'm excited to see what THPS5 has in store, since while I didn't mind the open world nature of the latter games, like Underground and Sk8land, going back to play THPS2X was challenging in a different way.

Though the San Francisco Streets level sucked. A LOT.

ALBUM UPDATES PT. 2:
The artist is working on the poster print, and I'll be tackling the T-shirt design. It's a simple little thing I whipped up, so that it won't be too much to print. Most of my time will be spent on the "boring" stuff like liner design and what not.

NEW SHOWS ON THE WAY?
Hmmmm.... I do, but I'm not in the position to announce anything juuuuust yet. But I will tell you that they're both shows I played at last year, and am happy to play at again :D. That and I'm updating during WWE Raw when I'm working 10 hour days, so life is short.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS....
Yeah... I don't know how to link my profile or anything, but I'm RhythmBastard on there as well. So far I've been doing really good with Garen and Kayle, and like TF2, I don't really have a preferred role, just kinda go wherever.

While TF2 has me playing for longer, League has me going back for more. TF2 I could play for hours in the same server, because it keeps games going until the map changes. With League, the fact that it has clear "stopping points" makes me come back to it, since I don't hit that "OH SHIT, I gotta stop point" as fast. The shorthand I use to describe it is World of Warcraft meets Football. Only this is, well, something that doesn't bore me.

But I keep myself to one game a day, I swear.

I can quit anytime....

Maybe I should take up something else... like jogging.... or heroin....

CHRISTMAS FUNTIME 2011: Tony Hawk In Review

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series is coming back as a downloadable title compiling select levels from the first two games. So far only "School" and "Downhill" from the first game are confirmed.

For Christmas Funtime, I'm going to a rough retrospective.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 is probably the one game I keep coming back to. I remember renting it back when it first came out, and barely knowing how string a combo. I didn't get far, but more than anything I loved the soundtrack: "Superman" by Goldfinger, "Police Truck" by The Dead Kennedys and "Jerry Was A Race Car Drive" by Primus, are all great songs- that got cut to shit on the Nintendo 64 version due to its limited storage capabilities. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for getting a game just for the soundtrack, and of all the THPS I've ROM'd, this is the one I always go back to. The only difference it feels so limiting after the sequels.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was the first THPS game I bought, and the first time I played through career mode, in the first level, The Hangar, I thought "This is bullshit, it's Warehouse, But Also Again. Then I launched off the vert ramp at the far edge of the wall, and crashed through a window.

"Oh. Nevermind. :(" I can speak in emoticons. What?

The best memory I have this game was trying to 100% everything in the game while my right wrist was in a cast summer of 2001. I think I got all the goals, but then I went after the gaps. Kids, this was life before Trophies and Acheivements. Oh, crap! I just remembered that Tony Hawk HD will have Trophies and Achievements!

The manual was a more welcome addition the more I got used to it, and it seemed like this game was more suited toward "street" skating.

THPS 2 for the Game Boy Color was just eh, and the GBA version was a little frustrating with the top down view.

THPS 3, I played on the Gamecube the winter after my family got the Gamecube. I remember we went on a trip to Niagara Falls, drove there, and me and my brother could each rent one game to keep us occupied while they were at the casino. My choice was, obviously, THPS3. I also played a bootleg version of it for the PC.

Being able to Revert was a huge deal. You could go up a ramp, do a trick or 7, come down, Revert, then manual, and still keep a combo going. It felt like cheating but it was SOOO GOOD, and brought vert ramps back into play. The levels were bigger still. but it kept 2 minute time limit and you can tell that it was getting to be a little constraing. Most of the time I'd one PERFECT spot to rack up a lot of points, but getting there took up half my run time.

Which brings us to THPS4. Another rental, but I didn't get too far into this one. There was an open world, and if I remember right, there were some overall goals (i.e. get XXX,000 points, etc.), so there was something to do in between the challenges you got in the course, and you can progress without beating them.

Now to what I thing to be the series' peak: Tony Hawk Underground. Other than two minor complaints, I loved everything this game had to offer: The levels (from a place in New York I actually recognize!), the soundtrack (Dropkick Murphy's "Time To Go"!, Social Distortion's "Mommy's Little Monster"!, Rubber City Rebels's "Pierce My Brain!", KISS!), and while in previous games, the levels got slightly bigger, only hinting at a sense of progression, the story gave everything a little more oomph (forgive me, I was in high school), like I, the Rhythm Bastard, were making it big in the world of skate.

The two minor things I mentioned earlier:
1. There was a feature where you could upload a picture of yourself to a website, and your custom skater would be able to play through the game with your face. It was fucking broken.

2. Speaking of fucking broken, by hitting (DOWN+RIGHT) and tapping Grind button twice, you could execute the Darkslide, and it automatically set your balance bar back to the middle. That would get abused ALL THE TIME in online games, especially on the Moscow level. I'd finish a run, and for another five minutes, people would still be skating around. It wasn't uncommon to see 7-digit scores. There was some clan, I remember, where you were assigned a letter based on your score. The lowest to join was, 1,000,000 and you got a letter of Z. People were getting 26,000,000 points on a "two" minute run.

The next game I played the hell out of was American Sk8land for the DS. It was portable classic Tony Hawk. I loved it.

However, the most important thing that came out of this game was that because I listened to these two songs so much, I knew them so well, (due to playing Sk8land anytime I was in a waiting room, bathroom or car ride), they became the first songs I learned how to play on guitar:

"Holiday" by Green Day and "Clash City Rockers" by The Clash.

Really, that right there ties all of this into a nice little retrospective bow, and so many nice, warm memories came back to me writing it.

But then I got a free copy of Tony Hawk Ride with my Xbox 360. That game was broken as shit, and it can go fuck itself, and the only thing of value was that I traded it into Blockbuster where I got $30 credit toward Beatles Rock Band Deluxe.

THPS HD, barring any horrific changes, is a Day 1 buy for me.