Week four of the Shipping Report, and we’re actually on time for once. Well, more or less: it’s the same weekend as the date indicated up to, and that’s good enough for me. With the short time in between the last post and this one, there’s not a whole lot to talk about this week, which should keep it a lot shorter, but we’ll still be covering the usual bases: music, games and this weeks comics haul. I haven’t really noticed anything around the web to point out either, to be honest, so it really will be a short week.

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So I went into dB and picked up the games in my pigeon hole. Juiced 2 was indeed there, along with some other Juiced related stuff that I’ll get to in a sec, as was Buzz: The Big Hollywood Quiz. Unfortunately, despite packing the game in a gold coloured film canister and including some kind of bonus disc along with it, there weren’t actually any controllers, and the game requires them. That seems like the kind of thing that I’d check before sending it out if I were a Sony Computer Entertainment rep - especially if the game was in aforementioned gold film canister - but nevermind. Maybe someone will join the review team at some point who actually does own the controllers, and we’ll get the review out in six months time. Or maybe Sony will send through some of the controllers. Either way.

Instead of taking that, then, I found that our lovely Activision rep had been kind enough to send through a copy of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, which I’ve spend a good half of the weekend playing. I didn’t play Project 8, but I did play most of them up to that point, and this is still pretty much the same game that I remember playing on the Nintendo 64. I mean, sure, they introduced a coherent world in the fourth game, along with crappy platforming segments, and this one has new career based goals that allow you to choose your path to some degree, but it’s still frustrating and imprecise as all hell. I’ve just turned it off in the lounge room, actually, and haven’t felt this outrageously frustrated over a game since…Spider-Man 3, I think. Hey, another Activision game! I’ll try not to draw conclusions from that.

Seriously though, I can’t understand how there are still the problems that there are. Certain goals at hard to achieve just because the game doesn’t explain how to do them properly, or because the controls are just too touch and go, and you have to rely on sheer luck to ever do them. Why is it still so hard to string combos together? SSX showed a great way of setting up chains using the right analogue stick almost six years ago. It’s not impossible, of course, but it’s just so dead boring these days.

I haven’t played skate., it’s worth noting. EA’s skateboarding game has been getting some pretty good reviews for its innovatio, and seems to have pretty much cornered the skate sim market right from the outset. Tony Hawk, on the other hand, seems to be taking baby steps in this direction with each passing title, though not really in a way that makes any kind of sense. That is to say, they’re including moves like reverts and so forth, but other than that, they’re just content with making the game harder, with more ridiculous scores needed to progress. It sucks the fun out of the game.

I mean, I was pretty reasonable at the second game. I didn’t quite finish it, but I got up to the last level, and I probably wasn’t far off getting the required score. Now I need to score 250,000 points in 1:30 and I’m only getting 2,000 per trick? That’s frustrating, not challenging. Especially when the damned controls haven’t even really changed since the second game and the moves are still done by entering one of about a million different combinations.

Yeah, there’s the Nail a Trick mode, which allows you to spin and flip the board in slow motion using the analogue sticks when you’re in the air. But it just makes it even harder to try and flip the left stick up and down to enter a manual after that to try and score a combo.

And the skate checking? Whose stupid idea was that? Seriously. I’m playing this game to skate, not to try and chase some guy through a skate park while periodically checking up on my buddy and trying to defend him. Escort missions are bad enough in action games, let alone games where people have been complaining about the non-skating sections for four years now. It boggles the mind. I try not to get too hyperbolic, but it really is one of the stupidest design choices I’ve seen in a game of this standard for some time. Tragic, annoying and enough to make me want to stop playing completely in some kind of protest, although I did manage to get through it eventually.

It’s a pity that the game just hasn’t moved on enough, or in the right ways, anyway, because the way it’s all set out and the progression of the story is pretty fulfilling, and it were actually a little easier to progress it would probably be a great deal of fun. Though, still kinda stale. I really am still trying to figure out exactly what I think of the game - these are more just impressions from a few hours play. I gather that there are certainly things that will make doing manuals easier later on, though chances are the game is going to have ramped up in difficulty significantly by then.

Juiced 2 is another game that’s been frustrating me over the time I’ve been playing it. It’s fun, and as you can see from the picture I took (with a camera - thank god for LCDs) I really like the character creation part. It’s an odd habit of mine to create the ugliest character I can, and probably best not to ask any more about that really. The race tracks are well designed, and for the most part the difficulty is set pretty right. It looks great too.

I have no idea why, but I’ve always really enjoyed arcade racing games like this. I liked Need For Speed Underground, and while Carbon was a little less enjoyable, I still put a fair bit of time into playing it. I have absolutely no interest in the scene in real life, but I really like placing decals on cars in games. I can’t explain it. But, oh god, the drifting. I understand that it’s part of the scene, and should be included, but challenges like scoring 500,000 points in a single drift just give me a headache. Especially, as in Juiced 2, when you need to complete those challenges to upgrade your car properly.

Basically, you’re given new upgrades whenever you unlock a new league, but there are three different levels of upgrades for each league. In order to unlock the second and third tiers, you need to complete challenges. Most of the aren’t too bad - general fastest lap, or beat the overpowered car with a headstart kinds of deals. But there are two that just make me want to pitch the controller out the loungeroom window: the speed check, and the drift endurance. The speed check challenge is much like the fastest lap challenge, but with the added difficulty of having to keep yor car above, say, 88kph at all times.

But the drift challenge is a killer. Obviously, there’s some kind of art to it - I’m not suggesting it’s inherently broken or anything. But it’s ridiculously hard for what it is, and causes unnecessary spikes in an otherwise level difficultly curve. And it’s unsatisfying when you can’t even get close to completing a goal like that early on in the game. It makes me feel like I shouldn’t be playing the game, to some degree, and that’s not a good thing for a struggling franchise like Juiced.

After all, the first game had issues with even making it to market. It was caught up in the collapse of Acclaim, and made it to review for a few magazines, ending up with some very average scores. When THQ picked up the property, they allowed it another six months development, but it didn’t seem to help all that much, and the game has been viewed a lot more harshly than it probably would have been without the release problems. So the second one really needed to be something special in order to make people realise that the series is capable - especially with the release of Need For Speed Pro Street right around the corner. It’s just not, though. Not at this point of my playthrough. It’s fun, but it’s not special, which is a pity, because I actually really wanted to like it a lot.

Oh, and as I said, I scored a few bonuses from THQ with the game, namely a 360 faceplate, a promo CD for the soundtrack, and a windscreen cover, which is really awful and which I didn’t even take home. And, even though I did take the CD and faceplate home, I don’t actually want them either. So, keep your eyes open for the very first Little Mathletics Official Game Crap That I Don’t Want Giveaway in a few days. It’ll be fantastic. Or, more likely, totally underwhelming in terms of response and I’ll end up having to keep the “prizes” because no one will email me. C’est la vie.

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Actually, there hasn’t been a whole lot happening on the music front this week. I’m still trying to get through the other albums before I start listening to the new ones, so there should be more to say on that next week. I’ve done five over this weekend, with another four to go, so I should be listening to them as of Tuesday at this rate.

One thing I have done is buy even more vinyl. I’m really bad when I get like this - I get ideas for songs I want to play to people and try and hunt them down on vinyl. I did that with Pump Up The Volume by MARRS, and then got dragged into buying more from the same guy to save on postage. So now I have a copy of The Model by Kraftwerk and…er, a copy of Sucker DJ by Dimples D. Yeah, I know, I know. Impulse buying, eh?

I received the two Santana albums, and can’t wait to play Oye Como Va for people. Then while I was in town the other day, I stopped into one of my favourite record stores to check their second hand vinyl. They’ve got very little, but their CD stash is so good I thought it would be worth a shot.

And I was totally vindicated too - I found an almost mint copy of Birds of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra, which is one of my all time favourite prog albums. The band’s first release is slightly better, in my opinion, but Birds is still a great find for $10. Here’s a link to One Word from the album. It’s a little long to be throwing into a set, I’m thinking, but it’s stunning, isn’t it? Billy Cobham is simply one of the finest drummers I’ve ever heard, and that clear bass is to die for. Very awesome. Oh, except for that shot of the uninterested audience in the middle of the drum solo. Heh.

I think I’ll go with Open Country Joy, if anyone is interested. I can’t find any trace of it online, but believe me when I say it’s some seriously funky jazz fusion, with a guitar solo that will blow minds, with a little bit of luck.

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That brings us very swiftly to this week’s comics, of which there are only two, and of those, there’s only one I’d even recommend. Let’s start with the less impressive one, though - issue #2 of Marvel Comics Presents. It’s by no means a bad comic, but it’s just not really worth buying. I’ve given it two issues, and while I might stick around for a couple more, just to see one of the stories through, it’s not something I could buy every month.

Being that it’s made up of four stories each month, at up to eight pages each, you’d expect that they would be designed to hold interest a little better than they do. As it is, there’s only two stories in the latest issue that I found particularly compelling. Stuart and Kathryn Immonen’s Hellcat story is good fun, even if the pacing in the most recent one felt a little off. This is the one I’m going to see through to the end, mostly because Stuart’s art is just brilliant. I love his movement and posing, especially in this part where characters are yelling at each other, and the facial expressions have a great sense of comic timing to them.

Wade von Grawbadger’s inks are great too. I haven’t actually seen any Immonen art without it, to be honest, but that’s probably a good thing - they’re just so well suited to each other that I can’t even imagine Immonen working with anyone else. Dave McCraig’s colours are worth a mention too, as they’ve got a really nice sense of shape to them, which is particularly important with Hellcat’s plain yellow costume, and the fact that Immonen’s figures are mostly just heavily outlined, with a few strokes to give a basic shape.

The art in the Vanguard story is wonderful too. I’m assuming, judging by the credits, that it’s pencilled by Dave Wilkins and then painted by colourist Tony Washington. Whatever the case, the light and shade is beautiful. The main character, a policewoman dealing with a murder that appears to be superhero related, is maybe a little too “attractive”, but that’s to expected, I suppose. The rendition of Reed Richards, on the other hand, is just vaguely grotesque, and works nicely, especially given the shadows of his workshop/laboratory.

The story is well paced, as you expect from a serial of this nature, but at twelve parts it’s a little daunting. I’m curious about what’s going to happen, but I can’t help wondering if the comic is even going to be around that long. It’s US$3.99, which is quickly becoming a second standard level for comics, but for something that is really just a showcase book, it’s a little too much. I haven’t seen sales figures (because, honestly, I don’t care about comics sales figures) but I can’t imagine it’s doing particularly well. If it sees issue #6, I’ll be a little shocked.

Because really, who’s going to buy a book for that price when only half of it is even interesting? The Taskmaster story has some nice art, but it’s nothing to write home about. It’s a bit rushed at times, even if the action sequences work well with that kind of roughness. The Weapon Omega story is just dead boring, though. The art is average, and the story ties in with Omega Flight, the Canadian superhero team, and some kind of mass consciousness that has come from the pages of X-Men, I believe. Or something. I don’t know, and I don’t really care. The characterisation of U.S. Agent was the only thing that made it worth reading last time - the main character, who I guess is the titular weapon, and holds that consciousness, is just flat. And it’s another 12 parter. Count me out.

Marvel could be doing some interesting things with this book, but what’s been shown so far just isn’t living up to its promise for the most part. It’s a wasted opportunity.

Contrast that, then, with the best book coming out of the publisher right now: Captain America. Sure, the title character died six issues ago, but those six issues have been nothing short of stunning on every single level. Steve Epting’s art is just incredible: his faces are expressive and full of life, and his movement is full of impact. There’s excellent lighting, and great use of heavy inks to create some really dense feeling shadows. The covers have been wonderful too, with a real “movie poster” quality to them.

And it all gels perfectly with the scope of Ed Brubaker’s writing, which has been full of action and plot twists, while still retaining a level of believability to the characters. Things haven’t exactly been moving fast, but there’s been enough happening to keep the pace rolling at a really nice level. And obviously, it takes a fair bit of talent to not only be able to write a book where the title character is dead and have it be interested, but also write it well enough that I honestly don’t feel any desire to see Steve Rogers back any time soon.

Most impressive is the lack of angst. So many writers, when writing something that’s “dark” will just go with an immature anger. A lot of the X-Men books of the ’90s did this. In fact, a lot of the books of the ’90s in general did this. The fact that Brubaker can write a book that is genuinely dark in tone without resorting to clichés in that way is impressive.

Honestly, if you’re going to pick up anything in trade paperback form this year, Brubaker’s run on Captain America really should be on that list. It’s a great example of just how good mainstream comics can be.

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Well, that really was (relatively) short. More next week, and keep an eye out for the competition in the next day or so. I don’t want any of that stuff, so you may as well try and win it, or something.