Construed

We are detective
We are select
We are detective
Come to collect
Somebody’s after me
He left his footprints by the garden tree
Last night when I got home
I got the feeling I was not alone!

- Thompson Twins – We Are Detective (circa 1982)*

A little ditty of clarity came over me, as I watched Lawrence Fishburn’s Raymond Langston stumble through his first few hours as a level 1 CSI. Just a small piece mind but it was enough to leave a wry smile on my face.

Thinking back, on a number of occasions, I have heard Mac Taylor in CSI:NY state that he’s not a policeman – he’s with the Crime Lab. Of course he’s right & in retrospect, Gil Grissom was no more the detective than his NY opposite.

This brings me to CSI Miami & it’s here where the problems arise for me with this show. David Caruso’s Horatio Caine was a former NYPD homicide detective before becoming a CSI Day Shift Supervisor but he’s character seems to have forgotten that he no longer represents the NYPD. Too much of the swagger & too much to much, I told you so – the characterisation, for me, is too heavy handed & it’s way too cheesy for the CSI franchise. This is why I tend to steer clear of this now when it comes back for another season – at least until the producers decide to replace H with a new face.

My worry was that with the departure of the Grissom character in CSI, Lawrence Fishburn would burst through the Las Vegas based CSI, playing a similar ham-fisted, cheese-ridden character that would ultimately spoil the feel I have for the show.

Luckily, I can report that Dr Langston is no detective & it looks likely he’ll never be one either.

To fill Gil’s boots? I doubt he’d dare too.

DM∞

*Some of the worst lyrics to come out of the '80s but somehow, I love this song...

Some interesting comments about AI in videogames, surfaced in the last Game diary post. These mainly concerned bot play & how it can be a used to aid a player in learning a game level, that has been designed with multiplayer action in mind.

In my recent gameplay in Resident Evil 5, I have found Sheva a fairly reliable AI partner. She can reward you with ammo that she has collected or praise your shooting ability, after a head-shot. Where her weakness is exposed, is in the navigation of each of the game levels. This isn’t problematic as it sounds, as the majority of gameplay has been of a linear experience so far – the exception of Chapter 3-1 which lets you explore a marshland in more free-form style.

Shiva’s default ability in combat can be altered via an option in the game menu. If she is set to follow your attacks, the AI is OK but nothing spectacular. I have yet to try the other option which, I hope, will bring to the game a more aggressive Shiva. I’d have also liked to been able to do the assisted jumps in the combination that I saw fit, rather than Shiva always being the one to get the leg-up, in these almost scripted events.

I will have hoped to have played through some of the early chapters in on-line co-op mode & report my feelings in time for the next Game diary post.

DM∞

Modern living is hectic & none of us would argue against a shorter working week…well not if your sane!

We all procrastinate at some point & the enjoyment of being entertained can be one of the strongest pulls away from our everyday chores. I’m sure after watching TV, videogaming must come a close second as by which means we entertain ourselves, in the home…

…OK, let’s not get fruity here, please!

So maybe it’s after your shift at work or taking time away from the family chores but what I’m curious to know is, what videogame, over all others, do you turn to without thinking?

If you have such a videogame, then I’d like you to think about why choose to play that over others that you own? Why do you prefer it?

I’ll attempt to answer my own question in the comments below. My special thanks to Sara Pickell for her tweets on the subject.

DM∞

My first venture into watching a regular web show wasn’t that long ago – I think I had just stumbled into The Guild while looking over some rather funny & over-cooked MMO guild recruitment videos on Youtube. Since then Felicia Day has grown The Guild into somewhat cult viewing for gamers, around the Internet.

Kate VanDevender’s The Actor Diaries has, for me, that same vibe to it that The Guild has but maybe with alittle more polish & in a better contained 2-3 minutes per episode, of which there are currently four:

• “THE AUDITIONER”

• “THE AGENT”

• “THE DAY JOB”

• “THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE”

I haven’t laughed, with such honesty, at a comedy like this in some time & I recommend that you at least run through each of the four current episodes, for some very memorable scenes especially the falling over cheese scene from The Cheese Stands Alone & The Meg Ryan orgasm scene in The Agent.

I am hoping to secure an interview with Kate VanDevender, in the very near future…but maybe not in a cafe or with anywhere that has cheese on the menu.

DM∞