Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lazy Basterd’s Jukebox: Imperial March by Epica

I decided I needed to broaden my horizons and get more into music. So, I thought I’d make a few posts about bands I like. On the other hand it’s 6:06am and I haven’t been to bed yet. I could be sleep deprived and this is a horrible idea.

Enjoy.

Seriously, is there anything better than a rocked out Imperial March? No. And I’ll Force choke anyone that says otherwise.

Lazy Game Review: TMNT Turtles in Time PSN

Sony been doing a weekly sale on PSN titles recently and I picked up Turtles in Time for 4.99 and Ratchet and Clank for 7.49. R&C is shelved for the moment until I finally complete Tools of Destruction (see my earlier post on game completion failures). I did however give Turtles in Time a whirl.

Turtles in Time is an HD remake of an old 4-player arcade coin cruncher from back in the day when, you know, arcades existed. You know the game. It’s the same engine X-Men, The Avengers, Turtles and a dozen others used. The X-Men one even had room for 6 players (I pity the guy that got stuck with Dazzler).

Anyway… Overall, ait is what it  is. a button mashing beatem’ up designed to throw waves after waves of enemies at you so you die and pop in another quarter. Being on a console with variable difficulty, money isn’t an issue so I didn’t have to keep running back to mom for more quarters (hey this was years ago).

Easy (default mode) is definitely to easy though. Game gives you 9 lives and I ended with 7 on easy mode. I’m not that good. From a technical aspect the only bad thing is some weird screen tearing that happens sporadically. It’s not game breaking and doesn’t happen constantly. But it does happen and it’s weird when it does.

If you like button mashing beatem’ ups, or feeling nostalgic for old school arcades, it’s good for a rental. Not sure I’d pay full price though.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

The first expansion to Age of Conan is coming out mid-May. Now, I’ve dabbled in AoC since release. I haven’t really accomplished much, but every couple months I’ll renew the subscription and play a bit more.

The options for buying the expansion are just… boggling. Who came up with this stuff. There are 7 different options available.

Sold mainly through digital download, the xpac itself is 24.99 then there are several ‘addon’ packs available to give you bonuses.

  • 9.99 Digital Collector’s Edition
  • 24.99 Tortage Starter Pack
  • 59.99 Might of Chrom Pack (includes Tortage Starter)

Each addon pack contains various bonuses ranging from vanity pets, combat pets, XP potions, mounts and game time.

In order to get everything I’ll be looking at the xpac (24.99),  Digital Collector’s (9.99) and Might of Chrom (59.99). That’s $95 for a freakin’ expansion. Sheesh. There’s also a retail box that’s apparently only avilable through Amazon.com for 29.99 that can’t be upgraded with the other bonus should you want them. What marketing genius came up with this sales model?

Granted I have the options to get just the xpac for 24.99. But then I feel like I’m not getting the whole thing and get disgruntled. Sigh, may be time to say goodbye to Hyboria.

 

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!!!!!!!!

Holy crap, check out that tiger mount. Apparently it’s a long involved quest chain starting in Shadowmoon Val—er.. flashback.
Apparently you have to get a kitten and raise it to be your personal Battlecat through a long and involved quest chain. Where do I sign up!

**Full disclosure: Paid $100 for both Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King CE. But lets be honest, AoC is no WoW.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Must resist…

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It’s so pretty!

A new look

So obviously there’s a new look. The old format squished the youtube embed and this doesn’t. I think the white does look a little cleaner too.

HISHE: Star Trek

I recently discovered the ever reliable How It Should Have Ended people have tackled the new Star Trek. Epic.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Random Thoughts: F@#king Gaius Baltar

I was watching the Helen of Troy miniseries from a couple years ago on USA (random, I know) and when King Menelaus came on screen I was dumbstruck for several minutes. I know that guy. Who is that smarmy bastard. I headed to IMDB to check it out, though I placed him before I ran the actual search. Why, that’s James Callis. James ‘Gaius Baltar’ Callis. Scoring with Helen of Troy. And 6. And the other 6. And whatever number Lucy Lawless was. I refuse to look up his filmography, bastard’s probably nailed Cleopatra and Wonder Woman at some point.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

SC2 Release Date?

Folks over at gamerant.com posted some humorous StarCraft commercials that have a D-Day listed… StarCraft out May 22nd??Knowing Blizzard, I’ll believe it when I see it.

And why don’t we get commercials like this. And I had no idea Protoss were creepy stalker perverts.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Lazy Movie Review: Kick-Ass

Kick ass.

Seriously, great movie. Story follows hapless nothing Dave as he dons a costumes and fights crime to embarrassing results. Also entering the show are Hit Girl and Big Daddy who skip the embarrassing jump right to the results. Funny and quasi realistic (Kick-Ass’s first crime fighting adventure sends him to the hospital). I eagerly await the inevitable sequel.

Huge stand out performance by Chloe Moretz who literally steals every scene she’s in as Hit Girl. Swords, guns, flashlights even, this pint-sized lil’ ninja will kill you with relish any number of ways. One paticular exchange bu Kick-Ass’s friends upon seeing her in action made the audience laugh out loud:
”I think I’m in love.”
”Dude, she’s like 11.”
”I’ll wait for her.”
While I personally didn’t  get any creepy vibes with her (I was ogling Lyndsy Fonseca, Kick'-Ass’s GF), here’s to hoping her career follows Natalie Portman and not Lindsay Lohan.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Random Thoughts

Is it racist Mr. T’s character in the animated movie ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ is black?

Whedon directs The Avengers?

Latest news seems to indicate Joss Whedon has won The Avengers. Honestly I’m a little torn. Don’t get me wrong, I love Joss. Buffy’s awesome, FIrefly was awesome, Serenity was awesome, Dr Horrible… well, NPH makes awesome and understatement. I haven’t really seen Dollhouse or Angel so I wont comment. Whedon has perhaps more geek street cred than anyone – offhand I can only think of a few coming close, Tina Fey, Natalie Portman and Betty White. (Don’t fuck with Betty White).

However, Whedon has made only one feature film. Granted it was Serenity, but this the freakin’ Avengers were talking about. He’s not dealing with a cast he got to know and work with during Firefly, he’s dealing with huge stars and their egos. Serenity had a budget of about 40 mil, Avengers will be 100+. It’s a realisitc fear that he may be overwhelmed. Obviously I’m not syaing turn it over to Michael Bay, but… gah, don’t fuck this dude or your nerd cred will vanish and you may too. We know things.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Shockwave is my new desktop wallpaper

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Promo art for War for Cybertron. Micheal Bay take notes: This is how you update character designs. See how he’s got robot parts and wires and servos – and yet he’s also got armor plating keeping the basic original design.  I look at this and I know it’s Shockwave.

Lazy DVD Review: 30 Rock

In the last day and a half I’ve watched season 1 and 2 of 30 Rock. Um… great show.

Excellent show all around with great writing. The episodes are all self contained though carry forward some plot points so watching in order is advisable. Season 2 has throwaway comments about stuff that happened in season 1 creating a sense of continuity.

Tina Fey is as always awesome. Baldwin is cool and you gotta love Kenneth. Here’s to hoping he hooks up with Cerie. Giggle.

There are two issues that do annoy me with the show though. One is any comment about at Fey’s character being dumpy or unattractive. The character it seems, is intended to be a bit of an ugly duckling, though smart and capable. Frankly, Tina Fey is way to smokin’ for this. Maybe if Rachel Dratch was the main character instead of a frequent guest star…

Also, Tracy Morgan annoys the hell out of me. I can’t think of a single thing he’s done that I liked.

Anyway, barring any shark jumping I’ll have season 3 finished soon.

Friday, April 9, 2010

‘Beating’ Games

I was playing Dante’s Inferno and I came across with optional guy that I can punish or absolve his sins for some bonus souls (cash) and XP. I couldn’t reach him though due to a really tricky jump and after almost a full hour trying I gave up and moved on. This means I wont be getting the higher end trophies. Now normally I don’t care to much about trophies, in fact I wish there was way to delete them so games I no longer have don’t show up and (to me anyway) clutter things up. I had however reviewed the trophy list for Dante’s Inferno and though it all looked very doable (I don’t consider myself a particularly good player) so I’m a little annoyed the platinum is out of reach now.

This got me thinking about how I’d consider the game beat. By getting a platinum trophy, or simply by ‘beating’ the game. Apparently I’ll have to go with beating until my jumping skills drastically improve and I go for another play through.

This line of thought got me thinking about how many games I’ve actually beaten, finished to the credits and all that jazz. Not very many I realized as I went through the list, and it’s been awhile. I realized thinking about that list, RPGs get played the most, but I always seem to burn out on them, after what seems like 80% through and then just don’t get back into them. Action games I’m just not very good at so the list is short, and old.

Games I’ve beaten:

  • Contra – NES – yay Kanomi code!
  • Metroid
  • Legend of Zelda - NES
  • Dragon Warrior – NES
  • Shining in the Darkness – Genesis
  • Phantasy Star 4 – Genesis
  • Lunar – Sega CD
  • Symphony of the Night – PSX
  • Metal Gear Solid - PSX
  • Pokemon Blue – Gameboy
  • Pokemon Silver – Gameboy Color
  • Devil May Cry – PS2 – EasyAuto Mode, game took pity on me
  • Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance – PS2
  • Civilization 2 – PC
  • Alpha Centauri – PC
  • Diablo - PC
  • Star Wars: Rebellion – PC
  • StarCraft – PC – with codes, last 3 ‘Toss fights are impossible!
  • Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 – PS3

Sigh, seems like a fairly short list considering I’ve been a gamer for some 20odd years. Prolly a few I’m forgetting, I hope.

I  will say though, looking at that list, I think I’m most proud of Phantasy Star 4. That was an awesome game. Late in the Genesis lifespan it was one of the last gems for the system with awesome graphics and superb gameplay. And the story, I still remember Alys dying and the party leader shifting to Chaz. WTF?! A game character dying and staying dead? Blew my mind. We traveled to multiple planets and ended up killing an evil that’d then plaguing the star system for thousands of years. PS4 was one of those insane cartridges that cost like 90 bucks, I think I ended up renting it 3 times in a row to finish.

Update: I remember Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri

Nintendo is racist

Pokemon Black/White to hit Fall-ish 2010. In Japan anyway.

Darksider’s Promo Arrived

Apparently THQ handles promos better than Blizzard (where’s my Terran Marine?) as Red Faction and arrived a few days ago. (I’m lazy, sue me).

Haven’t played Red Faction yet, been a  little busy with Changes, Pokemon Gold and Dante’s Inferno lately.

I did check out the Darksider’s bonus disc though. It’s kinda neat in ‘look at once before shelfing’ way. Has a bunch of wallpapers, concept art, ads and comercials. Also includes a pdf file called a Hellbook. I wouldn’t call it a mini strategy guide, more of a encyclopedia Darksiders with descriptions on all the characters, locals and weapons in game.

Starcraft 2 - $pecial Edition

So Blizzard announced StaCraft 2 is going to have a collector’s edition. Click HERE for some details from GameInformer.

Basically for $100 (standard edition is slated for $60, most new PC games are $50), you get a bunch of cool extras that you’ll use once or twice.

  • #0 Starcraft comic -  w/e
  • special avatars for battle.net – w/e
  • Different model for the Terran Thor in game – weird
  • Soundtrack – possibly cool
  • WoW pet that looks like a Terran Thor – woohoo! once
  • Artbook – Woohoo! once
  • Making of DVD – this can be hit miss, I was very impressed with the DVD that came with Burning Crusade, Wrath not so much
  • 2GB flash drive that looks like Raynor’s dog tags, preloaded with StarCraft and Brood War – 2gb? seriously?

I… just don’t know about this. The coolest things are the soundtrack, art book and in game WoW pet. Artbook and pet will likely be looked at once and forgotten. Honestly, how often to you take the time to dig out a pet when wandering Dalaran. I do occasionally find myself listening to sounds track, though usually the Echoes of War version, not the official releases.

I could really care less about the avatars and comic, the ingame Thor model is neat I suppose but really a minor change. The flash drive is gimicky, 2gb and shaped weird – yay!

Also consider  - this isn’t Starcraft 2, this is StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. The Terran campaign. In all likliood we’ll be looking at another %100 for the Zerg and ‘Toss campaigns. And if I do get the CE I’ll be forced to get the other 2 CEs as well (see prev post on replacing The Dresden Files in hardback).

I’m thinking I may need to pass up the CE for StarCraft. Unless… they decide to include a Terran Marine figure! Those bastards till owe me.

Update: gamesradar.com has pics of the artbook, flash drive and Thor pet.

Update: Preordered at gamestop.com, shut up

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Changes… by Jim Butcher

OMFG!!

Spoilers - Spoilers - Spoilers

So about half way through and… OMFG!! Harry and Susan have a daughter! Molly has the hots for Harry! The Blue Beetle is no more! Harry’s office is no more! Harry’s apartment is no more! Harry fell to the Dark Side and is the @#$%ing Winter Knight!

Must keep reading…

Update: Just finshed. Jim Butcher is an evil motherfucker and I hope he dies.. Dies painfully from infected wounds on his dick.

More Spoilers: Murphy gets the Sword, and kicks ass on cosmic levels. The Red Court – GONE! Susan’s dead. Grandpa Eb?  And the book ends (fuck Butcher!) with Harry shot and dying… Sonbitch! Aprox 6 months for the next one!!

Another update: added larger spoiler warnings as Jim can’t read

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Pokemon Pricing

There’s now a $10 difference between Silver/Gold at Amazon now with HearthGold at 28.67 and SoulSilver at 38.99. WTF

Lazy Movie Review: Clash of the Titans

Saw the 2D version today. Thank god I didn’t have to pay the 3D prices. It’s not a horrible movie, it’s just incredibly average action movie and not worth the extra cost.

Movie does get extra points for a few things though. For one, it’s a Greek myth. I have to give it props for subject matter as it’s not something seen often.

Liam Neeson as Zeus doesn’t really have much to do, but damned if I didn’t get excited every time he spoke. Dude is the new James Earl Jones.

Also has a few negatives though. It’s been awhile since reviewed the myth, but I do recall Perseus was a friggin’ genius and his plan for Medusa was to fight via the reflection of his shield. Mr. Worthington gets knocked on his ass and notices his shield is shiny.

Speaking of Sam Worthington, I normally don’t give much thought to performances preferring to concentrate on the general story. Actors do much better than I could do so I don’t feel right mocking them for any perceived shortcomings. That said, I am starting to wonder if Worthington has had some horrible Botox mishap, he doesn’t seem capable of changing expressions.

For being a thoroughly average movie, Clash gets a thoroughly average score:

3 Stars – Of 5

Trailer Breakdown:

  • The Expendables: I was late to be seated, was that Jet Li?
  • Salt: Looks interesting
  • The Losers: Generic action flick
  • Iron Man 2: Woohoo!
  • Robin Hood: Looks boring

Friday, April 2, 2010

Rebates

Way back in 1998 Blizzard released an expansion to a little known game call StarCraft. This expansion was called Brood War. I was still a teenager then and Brood War was one of the first things I can recall that ‘I’ bought.

At the time Brood War came out Blizzard was running a rebate, get the game and you get a free Terran Marine action figure.

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I still have the Brood War box. UPC code is cut out and there’s a small tear on the front cover from where the rebate form came off. I never did receive my Terran Marine. 12 years later and yes, I’m still bitter. Blizzard, you owe me a Terran Marine and I want one goddamnit!!

In a related story: the Darksiders promotion still hasn’t arrived. I’m starting to be annoyed.

In a unrelated story: Looking over the Brood War box brings back memories. Kerrigan is somehow hot after being Zergified, freaky. And look at these specs:

  • Pentium 90!
  • 16 MB RAM!
  • SVGA!
  • 14.4 Kbps modem

It was the friggin’ dark ages!!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Random Thoughts

I wonder how many takes were ruined while filming Battlestar Galactica by actors saying fuck instead in frack.

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