Akting Out

I know I haven’t blogged in awhile. I’ve been a little consumed with gaming and my own thoughts lately. Consider this the return of Life as I Play It.

I know a lot of people blog about very interesting subjects, and I wish I could be among them (and get thousands of people to read my posts). I write, and speak, about the things I know, and what I know is how I interpret life.

I don’t know who I am. This blog helps me figure it out.

I’m very angry, I tend to not see things through, and I’m self-destructive. All of these things I’m trying to come to terms with.  The anger is something I’ve make peace with. While I am learning to be less defensive (and a bit nicer) I find that I’m able to focus better when I’m pissed off. As for the other two, well, baby steps.

Right now, I’m really trying to stop avoiding personal relationships, and I’m really trying to stop hurting people who care about me. I know what it is I’m afraid of, but that’s another blog.

In the meantime, I’m going to try something new while Universal Warrior is down. Starting now, I’m going to try producing one blog entry and one short story each week, just to stay in shape and keep the blog fresh.

The first short story, a planned submission to Oddville Press,is entitled “The Voices” and will be available on Saturday, July 4.

Enjoy.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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Wow, you take one week off…
I didn’t want you to think I had just taken off, or left you hanging. Universal Warrior is indeed down, and I didn’t plan it. I have a friend taking a look as we speak, and as soon as I know anything, I’ll post it.

If all else fails, I’ll post the story here. Either way, the site will be back up and running inside of a month.

If you think I’m going to rest and play games the entire time, well, you’re only half-right.
I want to thank each and every one of you who have tuned in each week and made the story what it is. Your readership didn’t just help me define my characters, but it also helped me figure out the type of writer I’d like to be.

I’d like to take this time and say that approximately $4.72 cents will be divided between the National Association to End Homelessness and the American Diabetes Association.

During the down time, I still intend to write the story, and when I’m able to resurrect the site, I’ll post what I’ve come up with. I’m excited to announce that the podcast has indeed begun preproduction, and character conceptualization has begun for the animated film.

The site may be down. I’m not. Neither is the story.

As soon as I know what’s going on, the war between Heaven and Hell will continue.

I’d like to take this time to thank Dianne (@keikomushi) Ken (@soulhuntre) Naomi (@onlinefiction), Akarra, (@akarra) and, of course, Chris (@ChrisTejeda) for all of they have done for me and the story. It wouldn’t be where it was without you guys.

Those are all of their twitter names, for those of you who have accounts. They’re all great follows.

Be back soon.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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How I hope this title heralds the end of bad-movie-based games. There were plenty of ways Raven could’ve effed up Wolverine, and blessedly, they avoided most of them. For Logan, aciton-game, and franchise fans, this may be the best sixty bucks you ever spend.

The game loosely follows the plot of the film, but doesn’t give anything away. Rather than stick to the blockbuster’s plot, the game branches off; you play through some of Weapon X’s missions, including an extensive escape sequence through the wintry Alkali Lake.

The audio/visual presentation is exemplary, in that they are gorgeous without being distracting. The screams of the dying (via one of Logan’s many methods) are horrifying, hilarious, and delicious.  Get to close to a woodland creature and it will scurry away–you’ll barely notice.You never get sick of the clean-sounding sound of Logan’s claws unsheathing, the transition between cutscene and gameplay is so difficult to discern that you’re not sure (until you start getting shot) when you’re back in control. Finally, if you really want to know how much trouble you’re in, you don’t have to watch your health gauge; the damage is physically reflected on Logan’s body with eerie detail.

The gameplay is really where Raven came through. Combat sequences are frenetically smooth, thanks to an intuitive control scheme. Wolverine kills people; tell him what you want him to do, and he’ll figure it out. And there are so many ways to kill people; enough to make Ryu Hayabusa look like a switchblade-wielding noob. Hack your opponents into tomato-like soup. Impale them on whatever happens to be in the area. Show them what a horrible mistake it was to engage you on high ground. Most impressive is the Lunge feature, which allows you to leap onto your opponents from a great distance and send them into the next world with a series of pummeling strikes. The scream as you land on them (they see you coming) is priceless.

You’d think with Wolverine’s healing factor, this game would quickly get boring. Guess again, and this is truly where Raven dug deep. As Wolverine takes damage, his health (and appearance) decreases. Take enough damage, and his vitals are exposed. When your vitals reach zero, you’re dead. This is where the gameplay strikes an excellent balance of hack-n-slash fun with simple strategy; kill them before they kill you. As you progress through the game, you unlock items and skills that allow you to boost the speed of your healing, and the damage of your special moves. Feral senses is a great way to find your way if you get lost, and should be incorporated into most adventure games.

The boss battles tend to get a bit repetitive, as it comes down to dodge-lunge-hack-repeat. The collision detection can be a little spotty at times, and I found myself handcuffed to debris every so often. Enemies can get lost behind scenery and hold you up from time to time. None of this keeps the title from being great.

Overall, this is a lightning-fast, beautiful action game that isn’t mindless. Easily a candidate for game of the year, and well worth the price of admission.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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I confess to being a bit of an overachiever, and I’m probably much more sensitive than I should be. I resent being referred to by anything derogatory (particularly nerd, geek, dork, or oddball), even if it’s teasing, by anyone I don’t know well. I know that most people who do this now mean no harm when they tease, but I still have a chip on my shoulder about the whole thing.

I also realize that nothing is out of reach if you’re willing to work your tail off for it. If I am getting anywhere in life, it’s because I’m willing to do what it takes to succeed. Hence, I get a little frustrated when I work my ass off and I still come up short. Like with this job; if I get one or two ‘ticks’ (sales) in a day, I consider it a failure, even if there are others who don’t do anything that day.

It just sucks to really try and get nowhere…but I have to accept that it’s going to happen sometimes.
This week will be particularly brutal; we have a six-day work week and I’m learning a new system, in which I will probably make a few mistakes. Just to say that makes my stomach turn. But I’ve always believed that if you know it’s coming, then you can prepare for it.

And so, as I return to work this week, I will try to carry this attitude with me.

1). I’m going to make mistakes. I don’t know this job that well yet, I don’t know the material and the system all that well yet. While I learn, I’m going to screw up. This is not the end of the world. It means I’ve learned something new and I’ll apply it to the next day.

2). Getting one or two ticks a day is alright. It’s better than getting nothing at all. And that might happen this week. Going one day without selling will not make me a failure.

3). Nobody is being maliciouswhen they tease me about being a nerd. I can’t keep Star Wars figurines on my desk and not expect to catch a little heat.

So that’s it. I will relax, learn, listen, and do the very best I can.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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Every so often
I allow my imagination to run free
galvanized by the events around me
I lean back upon my sofa
and cast my fantasies to the infinite
wondering what might have been.

I wonder, every so often
If I was born in the wrong era.
Take not my technologies, my wonders
My twitter, my facebook, my touch-screen cell-phone
Yet I am curious; would I have done better
with my own lands, worked by my own hands?

No coupons, no savings
You may eat what you will grow
Spend my days under the sun tending my own
Evenings under candlelight
With plunders from the local library
rather than the remote control
(okay, sometimes I do that now.)

Or go the other way
lose myself in my bad boy nature
rebel against the status quo
Rob those who can afford it
Give to those who cannot
Be called a hero, a villain
Spend a long life on the run
Or a short life gallow-bound.

But what I would relish the most.
The women, won not through deed
but through honor.
Where insults are resolved
not by the gun
but by the sword.

Ah, a world where skill and honor determines survival.

But I speak of the world of my dreams,
And this is the here and now
where God has chosen to plant me.

And so I close this tirade,
and prepare to drown myself in pizza soup
while texting my wonderful girlfriend
and figuring out which of my statuses was liked on Facebook.

I dream of another reality.
But I will make do in this one.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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We all run into these moments where we feel that we just don’t have it.

We may feel weak. We may feel as though we’re not up to the task at hand. We may feel as though God doesn’t care about us, as though we’re afterthoughts.  We may not believe that we have it within ourselves to succeed. Maybe we don’t believe we’re worthy of it.

I can’t tell you how to find it within yourselves to keep fighting, nor would I be so arrogant to try. What I can tell you is what works for me.

I believe that God works with us every single day of our lives. Through events in our lives, He instructs us on how to cope, how to survive, and most importantly, how to live. Because that’s really what we’re here for; life isn’t a punishment, no matter how hard things may seem. Life is a gift.

Every so often, God likes to see if we’re paying attention by throwing something seemingly insurmountable in our paths. These are not moments in which we are abandoned; these are moments when we are to put our knowledge to use.

Each of us is a product of our own experiences. From childhood to adulthood, our personas are shaped by everything we encounter. No matter how you look at it, each one of us grows up with some type of strength. In your moments of weakness, you draw on your experiences-the strength God gave you-to overcome it.

For me, it’s the fact that I will never allow anything to stand over me again. I spent the first part of my life being shattered into a million different pieces, told over and over again that I was nothing, that I would be nothing, that I was a failure, a fraud, a weakling, and everything other derogatory name you can come up with. And I snapped; rather than go on a killing spree, I said it would never happen again. And it hasn’t.

God put me through my childhood so I would emerge a stronger man. In my moments of doubt, I bear in mind every trial God put me through, every hellish experience that brought me to this point. Then I remember; I have no right to sulk or feel sorry for myself. If I have overcome everything else, I can overcome the hurdle in front of me.

And if I can’t, for whatever reason…then I can hold my head up high and said that I gave it everything I had. For if I do my best, and I still cannot succeed, then it’s not something God wants for me. At least, not at that point in time. I will learn why I couldn’t overcome that hurdle, and the next time I approach it, I will get past it.

On a final note, I believe that knowledge is the ultimate weapon; the man who owns the gun isn’t nearly as powerful as the man who knows how to make one. I believe that as long as you are committed to learning, then you’ll overcome anything.

But all this is just me. Do as you will, but do it well. Good luck.

(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC

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