Couldn't have said it any better

It’s things like this that make me realize why I left Catholicism in the first place.

I wonder what TV stations he would provide?

Back a few years now I was disappointed in the lack of Soundwave being in the first Transformers movie.  I thought he was one of the more important characters and it would be hard to have a movie series sans him.  As most everyone now knows he is in the new movie.  A wave of disappointment hit me again though when I found out he would be a jet.  Stereo to jet?  But when I saw this I became even more excited about this movie.  And not from an action viewpoint, we now shit is going to blow up!  I became excited from an imagination standpoint… or maybe re-imagination.  Turns out Soundwave is going to be able to turn into a satellite as well.  Awesome.  It makes so much sense.  They took what he was used for in the cartoon and modernized it.  With fears of “big brother” listening and identity theft and what not in this day and age what a cool re-imagining for Soundwave.  Now we just gotta home they get the voice right!

zombie killing goodness

Let’s go back to some years ago when I was still using my Gamecube as something other than a dust collector.  During this time there was one game, and one game only, in said system; Resident Evil 4.  No if, ands, or buts, it was the greatest game to be released for the prior generations systems.  (This also made me feel special as most people still laughed at us Gamecube owners.  But that’s for a different discussion)  I spent many a sleepless nights (either from playing, or thinking about good ol’ potato sack chainsaw head) with this game.  Many times I would even have an audience as I played.  It was epic to me when I finally beat it.  And my feeling after pure excitement was how on earth are they going to top this? 

Well, last night I partially received my answer.  The Resident Evil 5 demo is up on Xbox Live.  And I know it is just a development demo and there are still a few bugs to be worked out (cough cough multiplayer, stasis zombies cough cough).    But there are only audible sounds for how I felt playing for even a half an hour last night!  I was like a 12 year old at a New Kids concert c. 1990!  

A few quick things about the game:  Game looks gorgeous.  The explosions took my breath away!  Game play wise, the controller works well.  Glad to finally have a quick inventory selection option.   Only problem was, and this may be for lack of looking but I couldn’t find a reload button.  The single-player with two character seems a little to blah.  Like Left 4 Dead, I bet the game shines on multi-player co-op.  this game was built for co-op play.  I can’t explain how much better the demo was playing with someone else; headset and all!  I just wonder how the healing situation will work.  I’m thinking it will be a true survival game there and make healing really scarce.  I love the idea you can split up and support from roofs; genius.  I don’t want to ruin too much of the demo here, but i have to mention the headsmen zombie… how freakin’ awesome!  So in summary, March, apparently, cannot come soon enough.

Oh and one final observation, has Redfield been on the ‘roids?  His arms are enormous in this game!  Look at those things!

How I've Missed You

I just want to welcome television back. More specifically the quality of shows on television once again. (The popularity of television itself continues to decline but that has nothing to do with what is actually on television. With outlets like hulu.com and iTunes people can watch shows when and where they want, without ever turning a television on). For a while it seemed as though the only things on T.V. were reality based or Law & Order. The tide seemed to turn, for me at least, with Battlestar Gallactica. Finally, I thought, a smart science fiction show after Firefly was lost. But that was cable. Network was still in the toilet sans LOST. But that’s just the point. Once show wasn’t enough for network to succeed. Well we can now fast forward to today and the week of television I just finished yesterday (got to love DVR!) There is still LOST and Battlestar, plus Fringe, Lie to Me (surprisingly good), The Office, 30 Rock. Plus there are shows that seem good that I don’t watch; House, Psych, Burn Notice, Damages, 24, etc. So welcome back television, I have missed you. There is so much potential for television to be better than movies and it’s nice to see it tapping into it. Now we just have to get CBS to start airing original good programming. The Mentalist, really? A guy who just notices things? One step at a time I suppose.

thought dump

Just going to dump some thoughts out of the brain.

After watching the two episodes of Californication I had on my DVR tonight I have realized that it may be the best written television show in quite some time. It somehow balances all of its raunchiness and sleaze with heart and emotions. The characters evoke caring. This is the sign of great writing. I would say it is the funniest show on television if I was not currently watching Rob & Big! I mean seriously, this show is crazy hilarious!

On to sports… Marshawn Lynch had some comments this week. I feel if more football sports players took responsibility like this sports would be different. I know he hit a woman with his truck and took the low road after it but from a sports standpoint he’s an all right guy.

But wait, there is more! I finished The Watchmen. I was surprised by major theme being a type of “is one life worth 100 lives” question. Really not what I was expecting. I went back and re-watched the 2 trailers for the movie and it seems like they are going to do it pretty well. I just wonder what will be left out. I assume the pirate comic story will be cut, a shame because it was a pleasant surprise in the novel.

Finally, hey EA Sports, here is a news-flash. All the third jerseys are out, release that damn code already!

What a Great Civilization

I’ve often heard the terms bitter, angry, mean, etc. to describe me.  I never disagree with mean, but the other two… well I have my moments lets just say that!  I’ve also been known to say from time to time that “I hate people” or “I hate humanity as a whole.”  Well both of these came to quite a collision last night.  (That’s actually quite a funny way to put it!) 

What is so damn hard about actually stopping after you’ve hit a parked car?  I mean has all common decency in the world just been vaporized?  I understand you made a mistake; you were either driving to fast and/or hit some black ice.  We all make mistakes from time to time, its takes a real person to take responsibility for them.  And what gets me worse is it’s not like this hasn’t happened before.  Two years ago almost to the day someone hit my car in almost the exact position and spot and also sped off afraid to take responsibility for their actions.  Things like this happen and it’s no wonder why I hate most people.

So after this accident I call my good ol’ local police department.  How wonderful they are to deal with.  The cop comes and asks his run of the mill questions, looking bored the entire time.  Sorry no one is hurt or anything cool.  You can blatantly see green paint marks and the car that hit left green paint chips.  What does this genius of an officer say?  “I’ll put a call out to look for a green car with passenger side damage and white scratches.”  Really?  Thanks, how about you drive around the neighborhood and look yourself?  At least make an attempt to look like my taxes are being used for something other than you sitting in a parking lot.  How about you tell me that you’re going to call body shops and see if any green cars come in requesting work?  Two things the guy could’ve said/done to make me feel remotely better.  Once again it’s no wonder why I hate most people. 

Deep down I want to believe in people’s general ability to do good things, but these types of situations make it really hard to believe that.  Common sense might be the scarcest of all our natural resources.

Christmas Smishmas

I miss the political commercials.  Yeah, I said it.  I think they were the lesser of two evils.  What is this new evil you ask?  Christmas commercials.  And more specifically Lexus ads.  This year of all years is when we least need to see these damn things.  The economy is in the tanker, go buy a car for your wife for Christmas.  Really?  What percentage of the population watching that commercial has ever purchased a brand new car as a Christmas gift?  One percent?  Furthermore what person after watching that same ad thinks to themselves “Hmmm… You know buying a car for a Christmas present isn’t a bad idea?”  What the hell has happened to Christmas?  I’m not even catholic and it pisses me off!  Not to mention these new Lexus ads portray people comparing the cars their receiving to getting a special gift from their past.  If you’re getting a car for Christmas I highly doubt you’re at all that ecstatic.  Something tells me you live a pretty good life and this car isn’t going to change it all that much.  And is it really better than a childhood Christmas memory?  That’s when this holiday was at its most magical.  I guess it wouldn’t bother me so much if they weren’t on seemingly every other commercial, no matter what I’m watching.  What happened to Christmas just being about friends and family?  It’s a sad state of life out there this time of year.

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead.  Wow.  Not really what I was expecting but damn is in a lot of fun.  I was thinking it was going to be a scarier, slow paced survival game, i.e. Resident Evil 4.  This, of course, is not the case, and it’s well off for it!  

There is a single player mode, and I don’t understand why anyone would play it!  I tried it that way out of the box and was a bit bored.  This game shines and was built for multiplayer.  It is way to much fun blowing the heads off countless Z’s all the while laughing with complete strangers on the headsets.  And that’s just on typical campaign mode.  Once you move to versus… oh man does the game get better!  Being the special zombies couldn’t be more satisfying!  Also the competition between the two teams is a fun element.

There are a few hitches in all this fun though.  First off is the people you play with.  I played Tuesday, Wednesday, and last night.  Tuesday was great: good group, headsets, and took down No Mercy.  Wednesday… eh not so much.  Couldn’t find a good group and was a little upset with versus play for a reason I will mention next.  Last night again was great.  Good group, headsets, camaraderie, beat Death Toll and Dead Air, moved on to smoke a team in versus.  So you see it’s really all about the people you’re playing with.  If you find some good players, friend them.  Small hitch two, playing versus and getting dropped into a body mid action is the worst.  It takes about thirty seconds to one minute to get orientated.  They need to work on that situation.  Finally, and I’m sure this will be patched but, there needs to be more versus maps!  Two just isn’t cutting it.

To sum up, if you love shooting dead things, playing multiplayer games, and having fun, go buy this game!  

If you currently play and need a game you can find me playing very often, gamer tag: LeanGiant

VOTE

Vote because its your right as a citizen.  Vote because your friends are doing it.  Vote because you want to.  Just vote.

Gaming Commandments

From playing video games most of my life I have learned these few absolute truths. I guess we can call them my personal “10 Video Game Commandments.” (They are in no particular order):

1. If you find yourself in a room with goodies (i.e. ammo, health, etc.) then chances are one of the next few rooms is going to involve your death! Either by way of one giant enemy or multiple small ones; you’re going to be in for it. This was especially true of Resident Evil 4 and is again with Dead Space.

2. You are going to die at some point during a game by complete accident. It usually involves the words “Hey I wonder what happens… $H!T!”

3. Involving sports games; the computer can, and will win if it wants to on any level above easy. Case closed, there’s nothing you can do about it.

4. Corners are your friends. As are doorways or anything else that forces things to come to you.

5. When in doubt, SHOOT IT! Aim for the head, or if you’re playing a game that allows it, take out the knees. It is way more fun to watch things crawl at you as you shoot them!

6. If all else fails, run somewhere else!

7. Every boss battle has a pattern or rhythm. Once you find it, abuse the hell out of it.

8. In shooter games; upgrade the crap out of the first gun you get. Its ammo is most readily available and it upgraded fully is better than any other gun… ever!

9. If a game involves slow-motion, use the hell out of it.

10. Spend your money, credits, rupees, or whatever they are called in the game you are playing. That’s what they are there for.