Macross Ace Frontier

Any Macross game is by definition an exercise in fan service, so it must have certain elements to be successful. The storylines. The characters. The music. The mecha. And missiles: lots and lots of missiles.

The folks at Namco Bandai and artdink apparently understand this, because Macross Ace Frontier is every fan's dream come true.

The Japan-only title is a straightforward flight simulator and action-arcade shooting game for the PSP. The game's campaign mode lets players relive storylines from Superdimensional Fortress Macross, Macross Plus, Macross 7 and Macross Frontier. Mecha from each era in the Macross saga are available for use, as are many of the iconic characters from the anime, often as unlockable rewards for completing campaigns or meeting certain conditions while clearing missions. Playing through the game's missions, successfully or otherwise, allows gamers to acquire experience points used to the enhance the abilities of their pilot(s) and mecha. Completing all campaigns together with the special missions unlocked at the end delivers what can only be described as Macross nirvana: the ability to use any mecha and any pilot for any mission regardless of storyline.

To be fair, Ace Frontier is a game whose charm will certainly be lost upon the non-Macross faithful. At best, it's a serviceable flight simulator with observable flaws. For instance, there is no way to lock the camera view behind one's ship, making for occasionally disorienting and frustrating gameplay. While fans will certainly appreciate the ability to transform between Valkyrie, Gerwalk and Battloid modes, it's a feature that adds very little to the gameplay experience, considering that one can probably get by without it. Also, there really isn't much skill involved in playing the game: all that's required to succeed are basic reflexes and the common sense to keep firing one's infinite payload of missiles at any and all targets. Finally, there appears to be limited use to the game's head-to-head versus mode via ad-hoc WiFi, considering how few people probably own the game outside of Japan.

But to fans of the series, the game pushes all the right buttons. The graphics are gorgeous for the PSP and really bring the different mecha to life. The breadth and depth of characters and mecha in the game make for a Macross experience unlike any other. Fly Skull Leader Roy Fokker's VF-1S or Isamu Dyson's YF-19? That's a fangasm waiting to happen right there. In fact, even the game's sensibilities are spot on: Max Jenius is arguably the hardest pilot to take down in a straight-up dogfight, bar none.

Overall, Macross Ace Frontier is a game that's been long overdue, if only for the fan service. While a sequel -- Macross Ultimate Frontier -- featuring more of the same is already available, all a fan really needs is already here. The storylines. The music. The mecha. And yes, enough missiles -- lots and lots of them -- to prove one's mettle as an ace pilot in the Macross universe.

On the Philippine Electoral System [Presentation Thursdays]

View this presentation on Slideshare.

More slides on elections from my teaching days, this time specific to the Philippines and mostly a historical overview.

[Confused about Presentation Thursdays? Then read the first in the series].

Error

There are only two mistakes worth making in life:

• Those that don't get you killed.
  
  
• Those that you can laugh about later.

All the rest? Best avoided.

C-major

To function as a professional in today's world, you have to learn to do a lot of things.

Create.

Communicate.

Cooperate.

Coordinate.

Compete.

Of these, the first is the most important: to Create.

If it were not for people who create, there would be nothing to communicate or over which to cooperate, coordinate or compete.

You can try to be as good at your job as you like, but unless you actually create, you're not much more than a pencil pusher, a faceless drone, an insignificant cog in a machine much bigger than yourself.

Ultimately, it's much too easy to be indifferent and simply surrender or go with the flow, and relatively harder to be creative, stick your neck out and make a difference.

[Image credit: 'Yappin'', a social object by Gapingvoid's Hugh MacLeod.]

Find Those Beavers! [The Internet Is Down]

I came across the cute error message above some time ago while clicking around on my paper.li page.

All I can say is: I hope they find those pesky beavers!

[Confused about The Internet Is Down? Then read the first in the series.]

Resonate

Nancy Duarte's Resonate, a prequel to her acclaimed slide:ology, isn't your typical book on presentations.

For once, here's a book in which the slides and the visuals don't take center stage. Instead, Resonate is about a presentation's content: the story at the heart of every presentation and the best way to communicate it in order to leave an impression. As Duarte points out, the presentation and projector have become the modern-day equivalent of telling stories by campfire, yet too many presentations lack the intellectual and emotional appeal that usually accompany such an experience. With this in mind, there is a compelling case to be made that incorporating fundamental storytelling techniques in a presentation is an effective means to allow one's message to resonate with an audience.

Duarte's book is therefore less about presentation as such and more about the basics of effective communication. It offers a framework around which to structure content in order to leave a lasting impact. The technical analysis offered in Resonate may be off-putting to some readers more intent on learning how to design better slides or deliver better presentations, which are only touched upon tangentially. Regardless, what Duarte correctly emphasizes in Resonate is that all presentations begin with their underlying content, which when appropriately structured can have meaningful impact, with or without slides.

It is an indictment of how bad many presentations have become that someone like Nancy Duarte has to write a book reminding us about what it takes to tell a good story. If only to serve as such a reminder, Resonate is a worthwhile addition to the presentation enthusiast's library.

Excuse Me

What are you doing reading this?

You probably have something more important to do, somewhere more worthwhile to be, something more pressing to work on.

And you're reading this?

You're distracted. Or you want to be. And doing this -- reading this, now -- enables you, feeds that distraction, offers you momentary escape.

This is not good. It won't do. For you or for me. I don't want to be your excuse, and you really have better things to do. Right now.

So get going. I won't take it against you. Stop reading. Get out there. Come back when you're done. You'll thank me later -- and better appreciate everything else I have to say.

And the next time you feel that urge, that desire for distraction? Think of me. Re-read this post.

Then do what you have to do.

Elections, Conceptually [Presentation Thursdays]

View this presentation on Slideshare.

Continuing with the slides from my teaching days, here's a deck on concepts and terms related to elections.

Looking through these again, I'm amused that I had to prepare a slide just to remind my students that there's a difference between "suffrage" and the "electorate". It's something I take for granted now, but I'm willing to bet not everyone that sat through the class knew that.

[Confused about Presentation Thursdays? Then read the first in the series].

With a Little Help

It's been a while since I last read science fiction, so I suppose it was inevitable that I'd be impressed by Cory Doctorow's With a Little Help.

The self-published anthology -- available to purchase in hard copy or free to download -- is a collection of short stories that Doctorow had been commissioned to write throughout the years. Each represents a forward-looking peek at where business and society may be headed given the trajectory that technologies -- namely, computers and the internet -- appear to be taking us.

What's striking in what With a Little Help has to offer is how plausible the stories seem, regardless of how rosy or dystopian each future comes across. Clearly, Doctorow's familiarity with the technical details of what he writes about has much to do with this, what with the occasional interjection of just the right amount of jargon to remind us that he does know his stuff (or at least to give that impression). But it's really by imbuing each tale with plenty of humanity -- through characters that express anxieties and emotions we probably would -- that they come to life, whether it's a story on what might happen if Google reneges on their promise not to be evil ("Scroogled") or about neuroeconomics in a world where unbelievably wealthy individuals get to live forever ("Chicken Little").

Personally, my favorite addition of the bunch was the Ubuntu-inspired "Epoch", in which the first genuine artificial intelligence, already outdated as the story unfolds, begins to try and prolong its existence. It's intelligent, funny and believable overall, which to my mind ultimately captures the best of what With a Little Help represents.

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011

View this presentation on Slideshare.

This presentation from J. Walter Thompson -- a company with an interesting if cluttered website -- has been making the rounds on the different social media channels, so I thought it was worth posting here. As the title suggests, it's a good overview of emerging trends, technologies and movements to keep an eye on in 2011.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

I love the effort the folks at Level-5 put in just to make sure that you can't pigeonhole the Professor Layton series as your typical puzzle games.

Take Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, for instance. Work your way through the puzzles and you'll know the game has enough brainteasers to occupy the curious-minded. Experience how the story unfolds and you'll appreciate how the game's role-playing elements bring its "detective mystery" conceit to life. Behold the game's animated cutscenes and musical score and you'll be amazed by the sheer quality of what is for all intents and purposes an anime befitting the Nintendo DS's (small) screen. Play the game from start to finish and, like its predecessor, it'll be impossible not to acknowledge that what you hold in your hands is a video game done right.

You'll come for the puzzles. You'll stay for the story. And you will have a smile on your face long after the credits roll -- just long enough before you start raring for more.

Crowdsourcing Me

Some time back, I signed up for an About.Me profile page. I did it on a lark, and it seemed like a good idea at the time (if only to set aside the URL), but the site had yet to launch and one had to wait before the public rollout. So soon after I filled up the form and submitted it, I promptly forgot all about it.

Over the holidays, About.Me sent me an invite so I could begin setting up my profile. The problem, however, was that I really had no idea how I wanted to represent myself on that page! Yet seeing as I already decided to take the plunge, I worked to put something together quickly and ended up with the following (click the image to proceed to the actual page):

Nice picture, no? (The wife took it, so just agree with me.)

Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement, but I'm not really the type to crow about myself. So how about this: why don't you, dear readers, write about me? Some of you already know me and maybe some of you have just gotten to know me by reading these occasional missives. Heck, even if you just stumbled upon this post and don't know me from Adam, maybe you'd like to have a go just for the fun of it. Ultimately, I think it'd be far more interesting to have an About.Me profile that describes me from other people's eyes.

How about it? Just shoot me an email or comment on this post with your description of me if you want to participate. Think of this as your chance to have some fun at my expense. Will keep comments open until the end of February, and hopefully relaunch my About.Me profile in time for Brain Drain's "blogoversary".

Looking forward to reading any and all submissions. Cheers!

To a Better Year

I will remember 2010 as the year that kicked my @$$.

It was a challenging year. That it had its ups and downs was just par for the course, sure. Yet, on both a personal and professional level, it seemed that the peaks were uncharacteristically fleeting while the valleys were especially deep.

I realize now that at some point I lost my edge. I can't tell you when exactly, but as the year drew to a close it dawned on me that I didn't quite have it all together, that I was in a funk, that without my noticing I didn't care as much as I used to anymore.

And so I am glad that 2010 is now behind me.

The great thing about a New Year is all the promise it represents: all the opportunities to leave the past behind, start anew and wipe the slate clean. Strictly speaking, of course, nothing prevents anyone from giving themselves a reset (hard or otherwise) whenever they want to; yet what better occasion to do so than at the start of the year?

I can't say what 2011 has in store, but I look to it with hope and optimism. I hope it'll be a year of personal victories and professional successes. I hope it will be a year whose challenges I can face with forbearance and equanimity. Above all, I guess I'm hoping it'll be the year I get my edge back and really kick some @$$ -- heaven knows I'm already trying.

Here's to 2011. May we all have a better year than what came before.