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Blade Kitten has some potential...
Wednesday, September 1. 2010
Fun with fraps...
Saturday, August 28. 2010
Saints Row: GTA III for the fun of it...
Monday, August 2. 2010
Just about everyone has called the Saints Row games "GTA III clones" (or ripoffs); but that doesn't quite do as a description. After all, almost all sandbox-style open world games with story missions and mini-games are called "GTA clones" now. However, the Saints Row games probably come as close as possible to being pure GTA III clones. They use the exact formula as the GTA III games, with the same story concept and game design. The Saints Row games would probably best be described as "GTA III refinements."
What I mean by that is that Saints Row and it's sequel drop any pretense at being taken even slightly serious. The plethora of side-games are all designed to exaggerate the goofiest (and, coincidentally, the most fun) elements of the GTA III games. The player is encouraged at every turn to crash cars, shoot everything that moves, blow everything up, and generally take as much advantage of the physics engine as possible.
I'm playing Saints Row 2 on PC; the original was only release on Xbox360 and while I'm sure I'll pick it up sooner or later, for now I'm watching the cut scenes on Youtube. I haven't finished yet, but nearest I can tell your character helped drive the 3rd Street Saints straight to the top of the criminal underworld of Stillwater but was betrayed and left comatose in a prison hospital. You awake 5 years later at the beginning of SR 2. Here's my current character:
Baddest Bruiser of the 3rd Street Saints
The graphics are a leap beyond GTA III, but my understanding is that GTA IV looks even better than this.
What I mean by that is that Saints Row and it's sequel drop any pretense at being taken even slightly serious. The plethora of side-games are all designed to exaggerate the goofiest (and, coincidentally, the most fun) elements of the GTA III games. The player is encouraged at every turn to crash cars, shoot everything that moves, blow everything up, and generally take as much advantage of the physics engine as possible.
I'm playing Saints Row 2 on PC; the original was only release on Xbox360 and while I'm sure I'll pick it up sooner or later, for now I'm watching the cut scenes on Youtube. I haven't finished yet, but nearest I can tell your character helped drive the 3rd Street Saints straight to the top of the criminal underworld of Stillwater but was betrayed and left comatose in a prison hospital. You awake 5 years later at the beginning of SR 2. Here's my current character:
Baddest Bruiser of the 3rd Street Saints
The graphics are a leap beyond GTA III, but my understanding is that GTA IV looks even better than this.
Spartan Prep...
Monday, August 2. 2010
It is where it is...
Monday, August 2. 2010
Late to the party: GTA San Andreas Finished
Wednesday, July 28. 2010
I've been sitting on writing a summary of my experience playing San Andreas for a couple of days, mainly in the hopes that I could come up with something really significant to write. But I got nothing, really. So here goes.
One of the few real debates amongst the Grand Theft Auto faithful is whether Vice City or San Andreas is the best game Rockstar has made. Having played both now, I've really been going back and forth on the question myself. The bottom line, I think, is that I would have liked a lot of the game mechanics, the somewhat refined graphics, and the HUGE size of the gameworld in San Andreas to have been available in Vice City. I would have liked San Andreas to have been as fun and irreverent as Vice City was. San Andreas is clearly, technically the better game, but I had a lot more fun playing Vice City.
Ultimately my enjoyment, or lack thereof, is rooted in the story and characterization. And it should be fairly noted that GTA III, Vice City, and the two Stories games don't really have much of either. GTA III features the silent protagonist Claude Speed obediently following a chain of missions that are linked by arbitrary but not necessarily nonsensical plot points. Vice City added a ton of characterization to the main character, Tommy Vercetti, and his many minions and compatriots; but the missions that form the story didn't always fit together as nicely as they seemed to in GTA III. The two Stories games cut back a bit on the story and characterization, to the point where the games were even more just a list of activities to be checked off.
San Andreas tries very hard to bring a good story into the game and fit everything together into a cohesive whole, but after the first third of the game the plot just seems to get stretched too thinly. The final act seemed especially silly to me. Maybe it's a cultural thing, I don't know. I'm the right age, but I am neither of the proper geographical or racial demographic to truly identify with 1992 Los Angeles (as presented in the game). Of course I don't have the proper background to identify with a New York Italian mafioso taking over the underworld of 1986 Miami, but I didn't really get the feeling I was supposed to. Rockstar seemed to try very hard to get the player to identify with Carl Johnson and internalize the story of San Andreas, and it worked for a little while. I was really into the game through the first major story arc, but everything just seemed to collapse after that. Although I really liked Wu Zi. I would play the game again at least through the Wu Zi missions in San Fierro. But after that the game just doesn't seem to have much to offer.
The single biggest problem, though is that San Andreas isn't nearly as over-the-top as Vice City and GTA III. There's still a lot of comedy, and one of the real joys of the game is hearing the dialogue that occurs during missions, mainly when driving. Generally, though; the game is much more serious in tone and style. This appears to have been Rockstar's intention; from what I've heard San Andreas is a laugh-a-minute madcap adventure compared to GTA IV.
Which is why I am now trying Saints Row 2. Getting scored for how well I fling myself into oncoming traffic sounds like just the thing.
One of the few real debates amongst the Grand Theft Auto faithful is whether Vice City or San Andreas is the best game Rockstar has made. Having played both now, I've really been going back and forth on the question myself. The bottom line, I think, is that I would have liked a lot of the game mechanics, the somewhat refined graphics, and the HUGE size of the gameworld in San Andreas to have been available in Vice City. I would have liked San Andreas to have been as fun and irreverent as Vice City was. San Andreas is clearly, technically the better game, but I had a lot more fun playing Vice City.
Ultimately my enjoyment, or lack thereof, is rooted in the story and characterization. And it should be fairly noted that GTA III, Vice City, and the two Stories games don't really have much of either. GTA III features the silent protagonist Claude Speed obediently following a chain of missions that are linked by arbitrary but not necessarily nonsensical plot points. Vice City added a ton of characterization to the main character, Tommy Vercetti, and his many minions and compatriots; but the missions that form the story didn't always fit together as nicely as they seemed to in GTA III. The two Stories games cut back a bit on the story and characterization, to the point where the games were even more just a list of activities to be checked off.
San Andreas tries very hard to bring a good story into the game and fit everything together into a cohesive whole, but after the first third of the game the plot just seems to get stretched too thinly. The final act seemed especially silly to me. Maybe it's a cultural thing, I don't know. I'm the right age, but I am neither of the proper geographical or racial demographic to truly identify with 1992 Los Angeles (as presented in the game). Of course I don't have the proper background to identify with a New York Italian mafioso taking over the underworld of 1986 Miami, but I didn't really get the feeling I was supposed to. Rockstar seemed to try very hard to get the player to identify with Carl Johnson and internalize the story of San Andreas, and it worked for a little while. I was really into the game through the first major story arc, but everything just seemed to collapse after that. Although I really liked Wu Zi. I would play the game again at least through the Wu Zi missions in San Fierro. But after that the game just doesn't seem to have much to offer.
The single biggest problem, though is that San Andreas isn't nearly as over-the-top as Vice City and GTA III. There's still a lot of comedy, and one of the real joys of the game is hearing the dialogue that occurs during missions, mainly when driving. Generally, though; the game is much more serious in tone and style. This appears to have been Rockstar's intention; from what I've heard San Andreas is a laugh-a-minute madcap adventure compared to GTA IV.
Which is why I am now trying Saints Row 2. Getting scored for how well I fling myself into oncoming traffic sounds like just the thing.
Late to the party: GTA San Andreas
Saturday, July 3. 2010
I posted a couple of years ago that I didn't even start playing the GTA III games until, well a couple of years ago. I've finished III, Vice City and Liberty City Stories. I tried Vice City Stories and didn't like it very much, and I tried San Andreas right after I finished Vice City. I didn't really like San Andreas much either, but I put that down at the time to being so much larger and a bit more realistic.
Thanks to one of the many Steam sales, I picked of San Andreas for PC and decided to try it again. After spending a day and a half trying to come up with a decent control scheme (I ended up using my PS3 controller), I'm now several hours into the game and can give a few thoughts. I'm trying to play the game a bit more naturally than I did GTA III, Vice City or Liberty City Stories. I haven't gone out of my way to do collection games or mini-games until they're introduced in the story or I stumble on them. Of course, I still looked up the Graffiti Tag locations online, and even then I missed one (ONE! out of one hundred) and had to cross check with another guide to find the exact one I missed. I found the burglary mini-game by accident (got in the truck) which was really handy; finishing the burglary game is one way to get unlimited stamina. I have tried but not completed the standard Paramedic, Vigilante and Firefighter games. The Firefighter game in particular seems to be much harder in this iteration.
I visited the gym after it was brought up in the story and got my muscles maxed out. Either something has bugged, I completed some unknown achievement, or I've just managed to keep things really balanced lately because sometime in the last few missions I stopped periodically losing muscle tone (normally, it seems to lose it slowly and have to keep working out to keep it up, which makes sense).
Here's our protagonist, Carl Johnson; or C.J. to his friends and tormentors:
Here's how he looks when he wants to show off:
The last mission I did brought in one of the things the GTA games have always done that really bug me: Changing the rules for a specific mission. After rescuing someone from a shootout, you have to get them home safely. Right as you take off, a rival gang shows up in a couple of cars. They don't shoot, they just try to ram you. You can't shoot them, they're bulletproof. Your car is somehow limited to about 40 mph, so the rival gang can easily slam into you over and over, spinning you around and eventually doing enough damage to cause your car to catch on fire. BS like that drives me nuts. It would be a hard enough mission with two normal cars full of gun-toting, vengeance-seeking rivals to dog you all the way home; the handicapping is a bit silly to me.
The only other thing that really bugs me in this game is that there's no reason in the world to keep a car for personal use. Every time I take my favorite daily driver out to do a mission, it will disappear after the mission starts or after it ends. Additionally, if you leave your car for an extended period of time, it will almost always disappear. At first I thought they were just being stolen a lot, but after I while I confirmed that the car would be there one minute, then I could literally turn my back on the car then turn around again and it would be gone.
One neat addition to the game is bicycles. They're a bit weird, in that if you're in good shape you can outrun almost anything, plus you can go just about anywhere. Of course, you're completely unprotected and everything else on or around the road can knock you off and send you flying...which is bad when your doing 80 mph in downtown LA on your Huffy.
Generally, the controls are better than the last GTA game I played; the story as well. There hasn't been a cut scene yet that felt out of place, and the only really silly mission arc so far has been C.J.'s attempts to help a friend (who was a prison bitch, apparently) become a rapper. Or hip hop artist; or something. This missions include dancing well enough to get invited into the D.J.'s van (so you can steal her equipment); and stealing famous rapper "Madd Dogg"'s Rhyme Book, because your friend can't rhyme or write worth anything.
There is the general silliness of C.J., the budding crime lord, rescuing a girl from a fire he started (this is after slitting the throats of "Madd Dogg"'s guards in order to facilitate the theft of his rhymes for a former prison bitch (apparently) who can't rap worth spit.) Oh, and after winning the pimping mini-game, stealing guns, and killing crack dealers for dealing crack while killing rival crack dealers so your buddies and make a buck.
On the plus side, C.J. bet all his money on the long shot at the horse races to win twice in a row and made 1.4 million dollars.
You'd think he would smile more.
Thanks to one of the many Steam sales, I picked of San Andreas for PC and decided to try it again. After spending a day and a half trying to come up with a decent control scheme (I ended up using my PS3 controller), I'm now several hours into the game and can give a few thoughts. I'm trying to play the game a bit more naturally than I did GTA III, Vice City or Liberty City Stories. I haven't gone out of my way to do collection games or mini-games until they're introduced in the story or I stumble on them. Of course, I still looked up the Graffiti Tag locations online, and even then I missed one (ONE! out of one hundred) and had to cross check with another guide to find the exact one I missed. I found the burglary mini-game by accident (got in the truck) which was really handy; finishing the burglary game is one way to get unlimited stamina. I have tried but not completed the standard Paramedic, Vigilante and Firefighter games. The Firefighter game in particular seems to be much harder in this iteration.
I visited the gym after it was brought up in the story and got my muscles maxed out. Either something has bugged, I completed some unknown achievement, or I've just managed to keep things really balanced lately because sometime in the last few missions I stopped periodically losing muscle tone (normally, it seems to lose it slowly and have to keep working out to keep it up, which makes sense).
Here's our protagonist, Carl Johnson; or C.J. to his friends and tormentors:
Here's how he looks when he wants to show off:
The last mission I did brought in one of the things the GTA games have always done that really bug me: Changing the rules for a specific mission. After rescuing someone from a shootout, you have to get them home safely. Right as you take off, a rival gang shows up in a couple of cars. They don't shoot, they just try to ram you. You can't shoot them, they're bulletproof. Your car is somehow limited to about 40 mph, so the rival gang can easily slam into you over and over, spinning you around and eventually doing enough damage to cause your car to catch on fire. BS like that drives me nuts. It would be a hard enough mission with two normal cars full of gun-toting, vengeance-seeking rivals to dog you all the way home; the handicapping is a bit silly to me.
The only other thing that really bugs me in this game is that there's no reason in the world to keep a car for personal use. Every time I take my favorite daily driver out to do a mission, it will disappear after the mission starts or after it ends. Additionally, if you leave your car for an extended period of time, it will almost always disappear. At first I thought they were just being stolen a lot, but after I while I confirmed that the car would be there one minute, then I could literally turn my back on the car then turn around again and it would be gone.
One neat addition to the game is bicycles. They're a bit weird, in that if you're in good shape you can outrun almost anything, plus you can go just about anywhere. Of course, you're completely unprotected and everything else on or around the road can knock you off and send you flying...which is bad when your doing 80 mph in downtown LA on your Huffy.
Generally, the controls are better than the last GTA game I played; the story as well. There hasn't been a cut scene yet that felt out of place, and the only really silly mission arc so far has been C.J.'s attempts to help a friend (who was a prison bitch, apparently) become a rapper. Or hip hop artist; or something. This missions include dancing well enough to get invited into the D.J.'s van (so you can steal her equipment); and stealing famous rapper "Madd Dogg"'s Rhyme Book, because your friend can't rhyme or write worth anything.
There is the general silliness of C.J., the budding crime lord, rescuing a girl from a fire he started (this is after slitting the throats of "Madd Dogg"'s guards in order to facilitate the theft of his rhymes for a former prison bitch (apparently) who can't rap worth spit.) Oh, and after winning the pimping mini-game, stealing guns, and killing crack dealers for dealing crack while killing rival crack dealers so your buddies and make a buck.
On the plus side, C.J. bet all his money on the long shot at the horse races to win twice in a row and made 1.4 million dollars.
You'd think he would smile more.
Status and Links...
Thursday, April 15. 2010
My two recent unexpected reversals...
Wednesday, March 3. 2010
UPDATE 3:
Ok, starting with episode 25 things get quite a bit better. Seems like the studio decided they needed to stretch the story out a bit, and so 15 - 20 move really slowly and are very repetitive. Sakura finally get's her very own crowning moment of awesome. The writers tried, and I think are still trying, to take it away from her (can't have a woman beat the bad guys, can we?); but anything they do at this point is going to seem like complete bullshit if they try to back out.
Actually wanted to finish the storyline last night, but quantserve stopped working around 11:45. Again.
UPDATE 2:
Not sure how long I"m going to be able to stick with Naruto Shippuden. I'm on episode 24 now; there have been TWO good episodes so far in the new series. Each episode is getting slower and more repetitive. The story is pure deus ex machina, with no regard for internal consistency. Looking ahead, this story arch apparently ends around episode 33; it needed to run maybe 13 or so AT MOST. The Chuunin Exams and Sasuke Retrieval archs were faster paced and better timed. Hell, the Zabusa arch was faster and made more sense.
I'm going to try to finish this first story, but if Shippuden doesn't get any better, I won't be able to keep watching. I'm already spending two thirds of each episode saying "What the hell," "that doesn't make sense," and "yes! We know! You've already said that TEN TIMES!!!"
Talk about stumbling out of the starting block...
jeez.
I had to vent to my wife (who thinks I'm nuts for watching Naruto in the first place) for 45 minutes before I could go back to watching.
---------
UPDATE:
Pete at Ani-Nouto comments on my Naruto viewing. Thanks for your comments! I hadn't dug through the archives and noticed all of his posts on the subject.
To update: I finished the original Naruto series last night and started the second series, Naruto Shippuden. The original series ran for 220 episodes, from October 2002 through February 2007. The second series began airing the same month and is still in production; episode 150 is scheduled to air this week. The Naruto manga storyline runs through episode 135 of the original series, which is where the original manga storyline ends; episodes 136 through 220 are "filler" episodes, and the original storyline for second part of the manga series is followed in Naruto Shippuden.
You see quite a few recommendations to skip episodes 136 - 220, but there are a few good storylines in that section. Unfortunately, the worst storylines are also present in the final 85 episodes.
Pete mentioned Sakura's improvement in Shippuden. The results of her training with Tsunade start showing up in the filler episodes and movies, but the Sakura of Shippuden is a good leap beyond. It's especially nice seeing the confidence and attitude she has...she's finally a character equal to Naruto and the more interesting second-tier personalities.
And regarding Temari's legs; I don't love the Sand Village stories because of Kankuro's winning personality.
---------
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty close to buying either a PS3 or a 360. I had been leaning towards a PS3 for about a year, but in the end bought a 360 Arcade from Gamestop. Don't have it hooked up yet; needed a component cable and I wasn't about to spring for what they cost retail. Got one off of eBay, and while I was at it picked up a 60GB hard drive, too. Probably should have bought the Elite when Gamestop was offering a $50 Gift Card with purchase; that would have been a better system with more games for only a bit more money than I ended up spending...but I hadn't made up my mind at the time.
The other recent oddity is that, completely out of the blue, I decided to watch Naruto on Crunchyroll. I never, ever thought I would do this. I've never had anything against Naruto, per se...just against thepeople kids that watched it on Cartoon Network. I had to give it some respect, of course...Naruto brought a whole new generation of Americans to anime; but I watched a couple of episodes and it just seemed; well, silly and more than a little stupid.
That may have something to do with the dub or editing, I don't know for sure. I've heard of many complaints about Naruto's English voice acting, but only marginal gripes concerning editing or censorship. The version available on Crunchyroll appears to be either a Japanese TV or DVD rip; the Japanese sponsorship splash is still present after the OP but there's no text or logos. I'm assuming that means these rips are probably from the DVD. The subtitles are mostly pretty good, but prepositions seems to disappear in waves; usually one or two episodes at a time every ten episodes will have poor sentence structure and obviously missing words. Whoever did the subtitles also selectively used the "Believe it!" catchphrase for dattebayo, which I've always had a problem with. It seems possible that only certain translators used this convention, as the phrase appears heavily in some episodes but is left entirely out of most.
Anyway, I started watching two weeks ago and I'm just about 100 episodes in, now. I was surprised early on, after a few episodes, to discover that I was enjoying myself and wanted to know what happened next. Sixty or seventy episodes in I was completely floored to discover that I hadn't had as much fun watching an anime series in *years*. Yes, this series has it's problems; especially in pacing. Early on there is a story arch that's at least twice as long as it needed to be; almost half of one episode is literally a repeat of the last half of the previous episode. Naruto doesn't really do "filler", at least until, I'm told, the last part of the original series. Instead, the action is slowed down and you get lot's of repetition. The segment I mentioned is the only one that's really bad, but these techniques show up every now and then just to stretch an episode or two out.
Beyond how ridiculous the premise of the show is, the story maintains consistency and characterization. Unlike most recent shonen protagonists, Naruto is actually someone I like and want to root for. He's a bit of a spaz, but he's not a jerk or an asshole. He's not too bright or quick, but he's not stupid, either; and he has pretty good insight. The series does a good job of establishing and maintaining his character and making his actions believable and consistent. The two main supporting characters don't get quite as good treatment; genius student Sasuke is whipped around like a rag doll by the plot...early in the series you get the feeling Sasuke is actually the protagonist; later on he's a massive deus ex machina. The female lead Sakura is present, so far, just for Naruto to have a crush on. She doesn't do anything. Even when she does something, she doesn't do anything. She's likable enough, but she really needs some more depth to her character if we're EVER going to start caring about her. I've read that she get's better later on in the first series...here's hoping.
But, yeah...I really like Naruto, and I never thought I would say that.
Ok, starting with episode 25 things get quite a bit better. Seems like the studio decided they needed to stretch the story out a bit, and so 15 - 20 move really slowly and are very repetitive. Sakura finally get's her very own crowning moment of awesome. The writers tried, and I think are still trying, to take it away from her (can't have a woman beat the bad guys, can we?); but anything they do at this point is going to seem like complete bullshit if they try to back out.
Actually wanted to finish the storyline last night, but quantserve stopped working around 11:45. Again.
UPDATE 2:
Not sure how long I"m going to be able to stick with Naruto Shippuden. I'm on episode 24 now; there have been TWO good episodes so far in the new series. Each episode is getting slower and more repetitive. The story is pure deus ex machina, with no regard for internal consistency. Looking ahead, this story arch apparently ends around episode 33; it needed to run maybe 13 or so AT MOST. The Chuunin Exams and Sasuke Retrieval archs were faster paced and better timed. Hell, the Zabusa arch was faster and made more sense.
I'm going to try to finish this first story, but if Shippuden doesn't get any better, I won't be able to keep watching. I'm already spending two thirds of each episode saying "What the hell," "that doesn't make sense," and "yes! We know! You've already said that TEN TIMES!!!"
Talk about stumbling out of the starting block...
jeez.
I had to vent to my wife (who thinks I'm nuts for watching Naruto in the first place) for 45 minutes before I could go back to watching.
---------
UPDATE:
Pete at Ani-Nouto comments on my Naruto viewing. Thanks for your comments! I hadn't dug through the archives and noticed all of his posts on the subject.
To update: I finished the original Naruto series last night and started the second series, Naruto Shippuden. The original series ran for 220 episodes, from October 2002 through February 2007. The second series began airing the same month and is still in production; episode 150 is scheduled to air this week. The Naruto manga storyline runs through episode 135 of the original series, which is where the original manga storyline ends; episodes 136 through 220 are "filler" episodes, and the original storyline for second part of the manga series is followed in Naruto Shippuden.
You see quite a few recommendations to skip episodes 136 - 220, but there are a few good storylines in that section. Unfortunately, the worst storylines are also present in the final 85 episodes.
Pete mentioned Sakura's improvement in Shippuden. The results of her training with Tsunade start showing up in the filler episodes and movies, but the Sakura of Shippuden is a good leap beyond. It's especially nice seeing the confidence and attitude she has...she's finally a character equal to Naruto and the more interesting second-tier personalities.
And regarding Temari's legs; I don't love the Sand Village stories because of Kankuro's winning personality.
---------
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty close to buying either a PS3 or a 360. I had been leaning towards a PS3 for about a year, but in the end bought a 360 Arcade from Gamestop. Don't have it hooked up yet; needed a component cable and I wasn't about to spring for what they cost retail. Got one off of eBay, and while I was at it picked up a 60GB hard drive, too. Probably should have bought the Elite when Gamestop was offering a $50 Gift Card with purchase; that would have been a better system with more games for only a bit more money than I ended up spending...but I hadn't made up my mind at the time.
The other recent oddity is that, completely out of the blue, I decided to watch Naruto on Crunchyroll. I never, ever thought I would do this. I've never had anything against Naruto, per se...just against the
That may have something to do with the dub or editing, I don't know for sure. I've heard of many complaints about Naruto's English voice acting, but only marginal gripes concerning editing or censorship. The version available on Crunchyroll appears to be either a Japanese TV or DVD rip; the Japanese sponsorship splash is still present after the OP but there's no text or logos. I'm assuming that means these rips are probably from the DVD. The subtitles are mostly pretty good, but prepositions seems to disappear in waves; usually one or two episodes at a time every ten episodes will have poor sentence structure and obviously missing words. Whoever did the subtitles also selectively used the "Believe it!" catchphrase for dattebayo, which I've always had a problem with. It seems possible that only certain translators used this convention, as the phrase appears heavily in some episodes but is left entirely out of most.
Anyway, I started watching two weeks ago and I'm just about 100 episodes in, now. I was surprised early on, after a few episodes, to discover that I was enjoying myself and wanted to know what happened next. Sixty or seventy episodes in I was completely floored to discover that I hadn't had as much fun watching an anime series in *years*. Yes, this series has it's problems; especially in pacing. Early on there is a story arch that's at least twice as long as it needed to be; almost half of one episode is literally a repeat of the last half of the previous episode. Naruto doesn't really do "filler", at least until, I'm told, the last part of the original series. Instead, the action is slowed down and you get lot's of repetition. The segment I mentioned is the only one that's really bad, but these techniques show up every now and then just to stretch an episode or two out.
Beyond how ridiculous the premise of the show is, the story maintains consistency and characterization. Unlike most recent shonen protagonists, Naruto is actually someone I like and want to root for. He's a bit of a spaz, but he's not a jerk or an asshole. He's not too bright or quick, but he's not stupid, either; and he has pretty good insight. The series does a good job of establishing and maintaining his character and making his actions believable and consistent. The two main supporting characters don't get quite as good treatment; genius student Sasuke is whipped around like a rag doll by the plot...early in the series you get the feeling Sasuke is actually the protagonist; later on he's a massive deus ex machina. The female lead Sakura is present, so far, just for Naruto to have a crush on. She doesn't do anything. Even when she does something, she doesn't do anything. She's likable enough, but she really needs some more depth to her character if we're EVER going to start caring about her. I've read that she get's better later on in the first series...here's hoping.
But, yeah...I really like Naruto, and I never thought I would say that.