Medic Media

Holy shit, looks like we hit a time warp guys, we’re still here though.  I’d like to get back into the swing of things with my reactions to this years E3 Press Conferences.

Am I the only one that’s disappointed with the way everything is going?  I mean don’t get me wrong, there were some cool announcements, and I’ll get to those, but let me first say this: Fuck this motion sensing gimmick bullshit.  The Wii sold too well, and now everyone has to jump on the band wagon with their Kinect and light up dildo controllers.  Awesome.  Some one please tell me why I’d want to spend $150 so I can pretend like I’m Tony Stark and move through my dashboard menu’s by waving my hands when I could get 3 AAA games instead.  When it’s 11pm and my family is sleeping I don’t want to jump around my room like a fool to play the newest Street Fighter game, I’d much rather relax in a chair.  That’s what these games are for, aren’t they?  If I want to play baseball I’ll just go outside and do so.  Alright, enough ranting for now, moving on.

Honestly, there really weren’t that many cool things at this years press conferences, sure we’ve got a new Xbox 360 model and the new 3DS, but honestly, I don’t care about any of that.  Where are the games?  From what I’ve seen here are my top 3 previously unannounced titles to get excited about.

1.  Twisted Metal

It’s about damn time Sony.  Twisted Metal Black was the first game I played on PS2 and one of my favorites of all time.  The individual story lines are so grim and awesome, the game play was polished, and the graphics were top notch for the time.  Coming off a game like that how can you not get excited for a brand new Twisted Metal game for the PS3.  It looks like they are really adding a lot this time around too, new game mechanics and flying vehicles are just a start.  Peep the teaser trailer and tell me you are not pumped.

2.  Uncharted 3

Not like anyone didn’t see this coming, but either way, another entry into the Playstation 3’s favorite exclusive series is certainly something to talk about.  Sony announced that the game will release in Fall 2011 with nothing in the way of trailers or screen shots, but really is anyone skeptical?  Just pray that it doesn’t utilize Playstation Move in online multiplayer.

3.  Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

I’ve been saying for years that Hot Pursuit was the last good Need For Speed and with how well Shift did it looked like they were giving up on the arcade racer and attempting to compete with the big dogs of Simulation Racing.  This announcement was a total surprise to me and one that I’m incredibly happy about.  Not only are they going back to their roots but they’ve picked up Criterion Games, the creators of Burnout, to work on it.  Keep an eye on this one, it’s got spunk.

That’s about it, I mean sure you’ve got your Gears of War, Halo: Reach, Mortal Kombat, and what not.  There are plenty of games that will do well in the press and in sales, but nothing I’m really that stoked about.  Oh, except for this:

Bioware, please just make a short movie already.

Oooooh, a new Ghost Recon.  While I was always more a fan of Rainbow Six, a new Ghost Recon is still pretty exciting.  And”Future Soldier?”  Sound cool to me, lazer guns and mechs and shit.  We’ve got enough modern warfare with, well, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and hopefully we’ll see a new Rainbow Six on the scenes by the end of the year.  Tom Clancy games have, for the most part, always delivered.  Anyway, here’s the teaser:

YouTube - Link

So by now you’ve probably heard the news that there is a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on the horizon, available for all 3 consoles.  What we haven’t heard however is pricing and what the deal is with the episodes.  I’m not unreasonable, I’ll gladly pay $10 or $15 for a brand spankin’ new 2D Sonic Adventure.  However, I won’t pay $10 to $15 for a quarter of a game, or a third, or a half…  What’s the deal with episodic content anyway?  Did anyone ever ask for things to be released that way?  Also, the main villain better be Dr. Robotnik and he better be named Dr. Robotnik, not Eggman.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens, but for the moment being, I’m very excited.  This is exactly what the series needed for the past 10 years.

Oh, and here you go, for anyone who hasn’t seen this little teaser trailer yet.

This is a segment that we’ve been meaning to try out for a while, hopefully in the future you can expect to see video reviews coupled with this.  What we do here is we play through the free demos on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.  Once we get the video up and running you’ll get to see our stupid mugs and our actual reactions while playing the demo for the first time.

So let me kick this “Lite” version off with the demo for Dark Void, the upcoming Capcom game that allows you to “Fly Anywhere, Fight Everywhere.”  The demo starts you up in the fourth chapter of the first episode.  The protagonist, Will Grey, appears to be trying to repair something, gets fed up, and throws his wrench across the room.  The wrench hits a prototype jet-pack sitting on the other side of the room.  Right here a few things struck me as odd.  Will’s voice and attitude bears a striking resemblance to Nathan Drake from Uncharted and the other guy in the cave with you, Atem, is like a watered down version of Sanchez from Assy McGee.  On top of that, they seem to be in cave of some sort, right on the outskirts of an enemy stronghold, how they manage to have all this equipment with them is impressive and how the protagonist just discovers this jet-pack now is very weird.  Oh yeah, and apparently there is a girl named Ava who is in some sort of trouble.

After all that is established Atem goes on to explain how dangerous the jet-pack is since it’s not finished yet, like that’s going to stop our hero.  So you suit up and find your self on a cliff, this is where the fun begins.  The jet pack can hover, boost you up and over things, and fly.  The aerial combat isn’t half bad at all and actually reminds me of Crimson Skies, being able to do a series of evasive maneuvers using the analog sticks was big in that game.  The pack also comes equipped with two high caliber machine guns, which are actually somewhat difficult to hit targets with.  Aerial targets, however, can be hijacked after a pretty long sequence of quick-time events but it’s a useful tactic if you’re outnumbered.  Hovering in combat can be useful too, allowing you to use your own weapons and grenades.

After doing some aerial acrobatics and taking down a handful of bogeys you have to land on solid ground.  This is where the game took on a Halo sort of feel for me.  The enemies are all wielding laser-based weapons that shoot varying sizes of blue bolts.  After you dispose of them you can wield their weapons  which are actually quite useful.  Once you clear the main floor you must descend to the next floor to disable the shield generator.  You encounter a new enemy here, they’re small beasts that jump at you and try to eat you… I think.  Either way, the first one scared the shit out of me, I won’t lie.  Once you realize what they are though they are easily disposed of.  So you disable the sheild, evacuate the structure and then a cut scene plays featuring a massive machine that just blows everyone away and then the demo ends.

Before I review this bitch I also want to say that the story looks very heavily influenced by Mass Effect.  The main enemy in the game, “The Watchers,” are ancient mechanical gods that aren’t completely mechanical and sentient.  Much like the Geth and Reavers from Mass Effect, no?  All in all though the game plays well.  Having borrowed controls that have proven themselves from games like Call of Duty and Halo anyone who is a video game fan should feel at home.  Hopefully the story is better than it appears to be in the demo, but for some reason I really doubt it will be.  The visuals and sounds are nothing special but they aren’t bad by any means.  I think what we’re going to have here is a game that is polished, playable, and enjoyable for a rent.  You’ll get a few die hard fans but overall the game is average.

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am a pretty big Bioware fan.  There is good reason to be, most of their games are masterpieces and in my opinion Mass Effect is the best game available on the Xbox 360 so far.  Hopefully that will change with the release of the sequel, and judging by this new trailer I think we can expect a lot.  This trailer was released yesterday on the Xbox Live Marketplace, I’ve already watched it like six times.

I know it’s all CG, but personally I love CG trailers, they’re more epic than gameplay trailers.  It looks like Bioware is making many changes for the better with a new and improved inventory system, a bigger and more interactive Normandy, and whole new team of bad-ass Allies.  Thane and Grunt look like they’re going to make an awesome squad.

Before I get into this let me just warn everyone that I’m entering “nerd overdrive mode,” fuckin’ deal with it.

With winter setting in and the snow beginning to pile up video games are quickly becoming my preferred past time.  This latest generation of gaming has brought us many innovative ways to communicate and interact with friends, but there is still something missing.  Why haven’t we seen any sort of integrated clan system?  The Xbox 360 and the PS3 both have this wonderful OS accessible from anywhere on the console.  I can be slaughtering hordes of zombies in Left 4 Dead and be talking to a friend who is watching the latest episode of Lost and another friend who is playing FIFA all while streaming music from my Windows PC.  With all this incredible functionality you think we’d at least see a glimmer of clan support.  So, with that said let me get to the meat of this thing; this is how I would do it if I were a game developer.

For my examples I’m going to refer to the Xbox 360 simply because that’s what I game on and what I am most familiar with.  The most recent dashboard update has added a “Community” section that contains things like Facebook, this would be a perfect place to set up our clan interface.  Lets start with the individual player.  Each player will have a list of clans that he/she is a member of, there could be some sort of limit on this like only 10 clans per player or some nonsense like that.  The reason for multiple clans is simple, there are a ton of people that have groups of friends that they only play with in certain games.  You could have a clan just for Call of Duty, a clan just for Battlefield, and yet another one just for Gears of War.  Now, if you’re like me, you probably have a core group of friends that travel from game to game and you don’t really care about other people you come across.  This will be a addressed by each individual clan.

Let’s say you want to make your own clan, you can go to the clan interface in the community tab and select “New Clan.”  You will then be prompted to enter a few fields of data; clan name, motto, description, and website url for starters.  Then you will be given a list of all the games on Xbox Live that support clan play and be told to add all the ones that apply to your clan.  So if you’re assembling a team of goons that will play nothing but Modern Warfare then you will select that, otherwise you can select multiple games that your clan will participate in.  Finally you will invite all of your friends into the clan.  When someone joins they will be prompted to choose from a list of games (the one you just determined) for all the games they own and are interested in playing competitively.  Once you’ve got at least 4 people that can participate in a specific game your clan will become eligible to compete in that game.  Now that you’ve got your clan underway you’re going to need to schedule some matches.

Remaining in our clan interface you will select one of your clans and go to “Compete.”  Then you will be asked to select one of the games that your clan is eligible for.  After that we could have a couple of options, you could look for challenges where the opposing team has already specified the time and rules, or you could specify the time and rules and wait for a challenger, or you could look at a list of all clans for that game and try to schedule a match with a specific clan (ooooh, rivals…).  Once a match is scheduled all eligible players in your clan will be sent a message detailing the game, time, and rules.  When the match begins all players will be sent invites to the game, you will join, and once all players are present the game will begin.  If one team fails to field the number of players required they will be forced to play man-down.  Once the match is complete the system will record wins and losses, along with some other fun stats, everyone will say “good game,” smack each others asses and depart.

Obviously this would take some work on both ends to implement but could it really be that hard?  Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow did something similar to this years ago.  Halo 2 tried, but it wasn’t the same.  Now all we get are “Clan Tags” and a handful of websites that operate on an honor system.

P.S.:  Microsoft, if you see anything you like I can be reached by mail, phone, or electronically and I accept payments in cash or check form.  My warmest regards.

Initializing rant… please stand by…

Alright, so what’s the deal with this Dante’s Inferno game?  A beat-em-up based on the first part of the Divine Comedy?  I’m all for random-ass adaptations but this one just seems ridiculous and I can’t seem to pinpoint the source of all the hype.  Is it that is has super-cool boss fights?  Or is it that it looks exactly like Ninja Gaiden/God of War/Devil May Cry?  I’m sorry, I just don’t think we need another one of these games when there’s already a handful of stellar titles in this genre.  Can this game really compete with the likes of God of War 3?  I can see people buying this and thinking they’re the smartest prick in town because they’re playing a game named after a famous classic poem.  Where are the original ideas guys?  Why can’t you write your own story?  Sure this isn’t cannon, its base is very loose, but fighting through the nine-circles of hell with weapons I’ve seen in every other action adventure game doesn’t seem too promising.  I hope I’m proven wrong and this game is something to talk about, but from what I’ve seen so far I’m going to call a “flop.”

P.S.  The “Go to Hell” tagline isn’t cool.  Okay?

Seeing as there is nothing great coming out in the last few weeks of the year it is an appropriate time to vote for this years Reader’s Choice Game of the Year.  A lot big titles this year, most of them released recently, and a lot of games you wouldn’t expect to be in the running.

The Winner is:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

In light of Modern Warfare 2 being released and being awesome it seemed appropriate to make this list.  These are my Top Ten favorite Xbox Live games since the birth of the service back in November ‘02.  Xbox Live was brilliant when it was first released, allowing console gamers to compete and chat online with friends.  It was also incredibly addicting, and I would play for 10 hours straight and not even realize.  Here are my ten favorite games to ever take advantage of the service.

10.) Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War

Was this the inspiration for the name of this blog?  OMG NO WAY!

It’s not so much that this game was particularly good and I’m probably working off of straight nostalgia here but Wolfenstein (pronounce “Wolfy”) held a ton of great experiences.  The game featured 3 game types if I remember right, one saw players trying to recover a set of documents and transmit them while the other team defended, one was an Elimination game type with no respawns and honestly I can’t recall the last one.  Probably because I never played it much.  The game had a lot of character.  It gave players a few choices of classes each with special abilites, the Medic, the Engineer, the Soldier, and the Lieutenant.  The maps we’re interesting with a take on D-Day called “Beach Invasion” that had a fun glitch that allowed players to blow themselves over the wall.  Any one who played this game knows that “Ice” is where it’s at though.  As far as the Xbox Live service goes this game has features that I think should be implemented now, I can’t understand why they aren’t.  The game allowed players to vote to change the map, boot an annoying player, change game-types, and change teams.  Voice masks and nicknames also faded away, what a shame.

9.) Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

This game was incredibly refreshing, breaking away from the barrage of first-person shooters that we’re drowning the Xbox.  The game only featured 5 or 6 maps (more were released for download later) but they all played extremely well.  “Chicago” was easily my favorite though, especially for capture the flag.  On a team of 4 you’d have two balanced crafts, like the “Devastator” patrol the center of the map and intercept fast-movers, a “Bulldog” (the fastest plane in the game armed with a machine gun and a big shotgun) make a run for the flag, and you’re defender would be either a “Brigand” or the “Doppelganger.”  Dogfights were intense, especially in some of the faster planes like the “Desert Fox” or “Dust Devil.”  There really isn’t much to this game, it didn’t do anything special, but everything it did do it did right.  Crimson Skies is definitely a hidden gem of the Xbox and thus one of my favorite Xbox Live games of all time.

8.) Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

Here’s another game that breaks the mold of the typical Xbox Live shooter.  This game took a lot of risks, restricting teams to only two players.  The spies would try to complete a series of objectives, like stealing documents or accessing a computer, while the mercenaries would defend.  The spies were armed with a non-lethal shock-pistol and were allowed to bring three pieces of equipment with them such as smoke grenades, sticky cams, and a device that would let you listen in on their voice-chat if you shot someone with it.  I’ll never forget using that device and hearing “God damn it, he’s listening to me, I know it.  I know he’s just hiding listening to me.”  The Mercenaries are the complete opposite of the Spies, armed with high powered and very accurate assault rifles, grenade launchers, and trip-mines.  The games were intense.  Playing as the Mercenaries was scary, the spies we’re fast and could easily sneak up behind you and break your neck.  Playing as the spies was stressful, if you were seen, more often then not you were killed immediately.  Sure the game was unbalanced most of the time, and Chaos Theory fixed this, but something about Pandora Tomorrow just made it more fun then it’s successors and it provided many hours of playtime.

7.) Project Gotham Racing 2

First person to comment stating the name of this car wins a special prize.

Just like Splinter Cell, this game had successful sequels that improved on the formula, but PGR2 always stood out from the crowd.  Walking around the showroom to buy your car with Kudos earned from drifting around every turn on Nurburgring was so cool to me.  The actual racing was great, and it was accessible for almost anyone, but this game really became one of my all time favorites when someone showed me a player-created game type called “Cat and Mouse.”  In an 8-player race you would have 4 teams of 2, each team is comprised of one Mini Cooper (the mouse) and one Cat (which would typically be a car from the Ultimate Class like an Enzo Ferrari or TVR Speed 12).  The point of the game was to get your team’s Mouse across the finish line first by any means necessary.  As the Cat you could simply smash into the other Mini’s, create roadblocks, push your Mini through the straights (which would actually increase the top speed by 30 or 40 mph), and protect you Mouse from other Cats.  This game-type was so much fun and became so popular that it was included as an actual game-type in future iterations.  Still, none of them lived up to PGR2 in my eyes.

6.)  Halo 3

I rank this lower than it’s predecessor simply because by the time this game had released, the untouched formula had become very stale.  If you hadn’t really played Halo 2 though then Halo 3 was a fresh experience, and even more so than that, it’s one of the most polished games around.  Halo 3 presents itself well, everything in the game works, is balanced, and varied.  There’s also 4-player online co-op, which is actually one of the better parts of the game.  There are a ton of game-types and variables, a lot of cool weapons and vehicles, and a nice selection of maps.  One of my gripes with the game though lies with the maps, they’re not as good as Halo 2, and I can’t help but feel like I’m being milked with DLC released every couple months for a premium price.  The game’s hype is it’s own worst enemy here, and if you take it for what it is, it’s still one hell of a game.

5.)  Gears of War

Gears of War was the Xbox 360’s first big smash and it made a great first impression.  The co-op campaign is still arguably one of the best gaming experiences available on the console.  The multi-player was originally shunned for it’s low 8-player maximum, but the formula worked well.  The game only had a few game types and about 8 maps, but they we’re all well laid-out and balanced.  It was gritty and raw, and that was the main appeal.  Everything felt awesome, it made the player feel bad-ass no matter what was happening, and the small teams really called for a lot of communication and team work.  The reason I put Gears 1 on here instead of the sequel is because of a lot of the changes that we’re made.  The second one does not play as smoothly, there are a lot of “cheap” tactics, and even though the Horde mode is awesome, it doesn’t stand up to Left 4 Dead.

4.)  Left 4 Dead

You can include the sequel here too since it’s basically just an expansion pack, but Left 4 Dead made a big splash when it debuted last November.  Valve is a company that always delivers and Left 4 Dead is one of the most intense and visceral co-op experiences you can have.  Teamwork is absolutely necessary, which makes it almost impossible if you do not play with friends.  Hearing the music play when a witch is nearby is haunting, and it’ll take everyone on the team to make sure she’s destroyed without having a chance to kill anyone.  On top of the co-op is the Versus mode, which pits 4 survivors against 4 special infected as well as A.I. controlled hordes of zombies.  Again, teamwork is absolutely necessary, as the special infected are pretty much useless solo, but you can make some very effective traps if you communicate with your team.  This is a formula that is going to be around for years, hopefully it stays fresh.

3.)  Halo 2

I played Halo 2 pretty much every night for the better part of a year, and continued to play every now and again for an additional year or so.  This is easily one of the longest lasting console games of all time.  I remember seeing at least 15 people on my friends list everyday when this game was released, there was so much to do and all of it was fun.  The match making system was revolutionary and the amount of customization for player-created game-types was outstanding and even still there were game-types that were made up beyond what the game allowed.  “Zombies” is another example of a player-created game type that became so popular it was hard-coded into the sequel.  There were some dark times too, where cheating and hacking became a huge issue, but with the great support from Microsoft and Bungie all of the major problems were fixed fairly quickly.  Honestly I don’t even want to know how many hours I’ve clocked on this game, it’s probably disgusting, but few games deserve the attention more than Halo 2.

2.)  Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Yeah, that’s right.  My second favorite Xbox Live game of all time was released only 2 weeks ago.  This spot would have gone to the first Modern Warfare but the second one is better in every aspect, at least when talking about multi-player.  This game strikes a wonderful balance between realism and fantasy that makes it fun without being over-the-top.  The match making system is the best out there and it’s a mystery why every game doesn’t use it, it’s flawless.  The game sports a great selection of game-types, although there are no customization options.  The leveling system is what keeps the game fresh.  When you first start playing and you have a good match, unlock a challenge or two, there are explosions going off every where along with some searing guitar solo’s and you can’t help but get a chubby.  Teamwork is big in this game, although one man can turn the tides, the team that works together usually wins.  The guys at Infinity Ward have done a great job creating and refining this formula and hopefully it’ll last a while.

1.)  Rainbow Six 3

Surprised?  You shouldn’t be.  Rainbow Six has been a staple in the tactical FPS genre forever and the third installment was really something special.  Featuring something like 30 or 40 guns was unprecedented at the time (and is still somewhat impressive), and each one was useful in its own right.  The teamwork and strategy involved in this game was masterful, seeing as it was so easy to die.  This was one of the last great games to include a health bar, ever since Halo 2 regenerating health has become the new standard.  However, I think my single favorite part about this game is the map selection.  Every map had a certain character to it, and every player had their own favorite and plan of attack between the “Suicide Hallway” on Airport 1 to the “Wiener Corner” on Warehouse.  On top of that, new maps were released every so often and, get this, they were completely free.  FREE!  The stand-alone expansion, Black Arrow, was just as good and added a built in clan system (and no, not lame ass clan tags but scheduled clan matches) and some great new game-types like Total Conquest (see Call of Duty’s Domination mode).  This game was terrific and made me really proud to be a member of Xbox Live.  On top of the exquisite competitive multi-player there were also two co-op modes that could be played with 4 players and we’re insanely intense on hard.  Between Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow this game effectively lasted me almost 2 years, too bad the follow up, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, was the biggest piece of shit ever to grace my Xbox.

Alright, almost everyone should be aware that Modern Warfare released last week, and what a release it was.  Nearly every game store in my area had lines out the door, midnight launches with over 200 customers lined up, and another couple hundred reservations.  Needless to say I got my copy and have been playing the game religiously since last Tuesday (hence the lack of updates).  The game is absolutely awesome.  Period.

It’s great, there, done.  That’s the short story.  Really though this game is exactly what a sequel is supposed to be, bigger, better, and more engrossing.  The campaign is a direct sequel to the first Modern Warfare picking up only a few years where that one left off.  I’m not going to get into details in fear of spoiling anything for anyone but you will play as a U.S. Army Ranger and a member of the British Task Force 141.  Every mission is fun to play, engaging, and interesting.  You’ll find your self gunning from and even driving a handful of vehicles this time around and for once it doesn’t feel tacked on (I’m looking at you, Gears of War).  The campaign is on the short side, I beat it on Hardened in less than 6 hours, but it’s 6 hours of non-stop action.  There also isn’t much replay value in the single player aside from higher difficulties, but then again the single player is only a small portion of the whole game.

One of the best new additions is the Special Ops mode, a two-player co-op that takes you through a series of increasingly more challenging missions that have barely anything to do with the overall story arc of the game.  They start out somewhat easy and very short and progressively get harder and more in depth, which makes them a great way to get better at the game.  They also make for good “jump-in” gaming when you only have 15 or 20 minutes to play, you can do a couple Special-Ops missions with your best bud and then be on your way.  Be prepared to get frustrated though as you get towards the top tier of missions, they will really test your skill and patience.

Now, the pièce de résistance, the multiplayer.  The multiplayer is, without a doubt, the most robust, featured, and well-rounded experience available on any platform this generation.  You have a wide array of game modes ranging from the ever popular Team-Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, to massive battles of 18 players in Ground War, limited respawn game types, and even 3rd person versions of a couple game types.  A quick aside about the 3rd person here, it is surprisingly well done and gives the feeling of a Ghost Recon or SOCOM style, so veterans of those games will likely feel at home.

The customization this time around is also more ambitious, each gun has nice variety of attatchments, each perk can be upgraded to offer additional benefits, and you can also customize your kill streak rewards.  All these additions nearly ensure that no two players will be using the same equipment, which allows for some really good team work.  You can have a player on your team with a silenced sniper rifle, who will get a UAV after 3 kills, a played using radar-jammers and a heartbeat sensor raking up the kills to call in a Stealth Bomber, and a commando player on the frontlines consistently calling in Predator Missiles.

Kill streaks have become the showcase of the game, the higher level ones being game changing such as the Chopper Gunner and AC130 which have the ability to keep enemies pinned indoors while continuously adding kills to the scoreboard.  Couple these will a few Harrier Air Strikes and a Pavelow and it makes the game complete chaos for the opposing team.  The game strikes a wonderful balance though, because it offers players the option to bring a selection of anti-aircraft missile launchers into battle to deal with these destructive flying death-machines.

If you liked the first Modern Warfare your gauranteed to enjoy this one, and if you found the first one too annoying or difficult, Modern Warfare 2 is much more accessible.  With added death streak rewards, perks like Hardline that allow you to get kill streak rewards earlier, and Riot Shields, the game can become a fun experience for even the worst FPS players.  This game is a must buy, it has only exceeded my expectations and it will be spinning in the disc tray of my Xbox for months to come.  One more time for dramatic effect: