Thursday, November 15, 2012

I Don’t Get It

Ryan Gosling. I don’t get the appeal. The internet seems to consider him some badass superstar hunk of sexy man beef and I… I just don’t get it.

I’m not gay but I can look at say… brad Pitt and say “Damn!” If I were, I totally would. Ryan Gosling… I don’t get it.

Drive, a movie on several best of 2011 list, I was bored. It was like Lost in Translation all over again. Best part of that movie? ScarJo in her undies, I seem to recall it was in the opening credits. Went downhill from there. Hrm, come to think of it though, ScarJo is overrated too.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Things that piss me off…

It pisses me off when games make me struggle to do something that should be easy. I’m looking at God of War right now. After slaughtering a hydra as the level 1 boss we’re then tasked with a feat of strength, forced to tap the ‘X’ button 50 times a second… to open a door. Any door.

Let’s assume that @!#$ing Kratos, is strong enough to open a GD door or break a barrel without making a major production out of it.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Antagonist… fight!

Bane-Shredder

Y’know, normally I would say Batman > All.

But against ninja turtles? Shit just got real.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

DRM

My last post I mentioned that there were 2 reasons I’d stopped playing World of Warcraft. One was the community being jerks and the other, is DRM.

Now obviously I’ve had to log into WoW since the beginning, every time I played I had to enter my password – hell in ‘ye oldin days’ the client didn’t even remember your account name. I’ve been fine with that however, I expect to have to log into an online game. It’s not an issue. Then I got hacked. I don’t have any idea how, I’ve never given my login information to anyone, virus scans didn’t show anything nefarious. Still happened though and I added an authenticator. This adds an extra step to the login process, one that requires me to grab my ipod which is usually charging across the room. Call me lazy, and I do myself, but this is extremly annoying. I can’t count the number of times I’ve started a game, logged in, and then been asked to log in again. WTF?? It’s even worse with single player games. Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, I’m looking at you. I have zero interest in getting my ass kicked in MP, why the hell do I have to log in to play my single player game?

This is not an anti Blizzard post. Rockstar makes me log into a ‘Social Club’ to play GTA4. I don’t care, just let me play the damn game when I double click the icon on my desktop.

I’m not against DRM itself, I’m against annoying DRM. DRM should be invisible once started. Steam is handy this. Also Dragon Age Origins is a perfect example here. There’s online activation and then there is a little box ‘Login automatically’ I can check so I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore.

The WoW Community

Two months ago when I started to get back into WoW I stopped again due to two reasons. One I’ll get to later, but the main reason is the WoW community, such as it is. I was on my mage running Drak'Tharon Keep. After the run was over someone in the group immediately requed. I declined seeing as I had quests to turn in and there was the event to sit through before I could do so. After explaining why I was declining to reque I was votekicked. Well, I ragequit and managed to not delete mage.

Yesterday, I CCed a mob and pulled the other five. A rogue decided to attack the only mob I didn’t have control of. A minute later the same rogue decided to run in first and fan of knives the group. I hope the extra 4 seconds saved pulling the group before me was worth the 15 minute que for a new tank.

Today I lost 2 need rolls in the same run. One went to a death knight, it was kinda a sidegrade so I didn’t care much, besides, he could use it. The next one though was a clear upgrade. I lost to the druid healer. Now, I’d understood that the loot revamp was supposed to prevent things like that, apparently not. I hope the druid healer gets good use of his new strength/parry necklace. And get this, after winning he left the group. He also won the OTHER item but didn’t get it because he’d dropped group. I can only assume his intention was to specifically piss me off .

My point, is that people suck.

My entire group of WoW friends originally started from a Deadmines run. After a particular display of badassery I was invited into the guild at level 20. I was in that guild up to 60, that guild merged with another and we started raiding ZG and MC and the rest is history.

That will never happen now. Dungeons are so ‘gogogo’ oriented you never pay attention to others (except shithead rogues). And even if you did, they’re on a different server.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Games Completed

I’ve previously stated I’m really bad about not finishing games, I tend to burn out fairly quickly. However this past Steam Sale I made a concerted effort to finish a few… and I did! Maybe even more than a few. Bear in mind when I say ‘finished’ I mean single player campaign is over with credits rolled, I generally have no interest in any MP as I suck.

Crysis, Crysis Warhead and Crysis 2
That’s right I finished all three. Crysis and Warhead are just about perfect and I highly recommend them to anyone with a passing interest in shooters. Crysis 2 is an odd beast. It’s obvious it was dumbed down a bit to work on consoles and doesn’t quite stack up to the original. However, mission structure aside, there were vast improvements to the nanosuit controls that make it hard to go back to Crysis. Let’s hope Crysis 3 keeps the control improvements with the original’s more open world. And doesn’t require a new video card.

Transformers: War for Cybertron
Was a fun game though I do think a few of the fights can be a bit cheap. I might suggest a run through on easy to prevent some aggravation and still get the story. Lots of shout outs to old school Transformers. I remember distinctly seeing one level where Warpath was a playable character and wondering if he shouted POW. Yes, damnit, he does!

Portal and Portal 2
I’ve had Portal forever but was stuck. Well I broke down, watched a youtube video and finished the game. And Portal 2. Now I get the potato jokes from last year. Yay!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
This was actually of Origin, they had a 1 year anniversary free game and I picked this. Graphically looks great and I thought they did a great job with the squad dynamic, for the most part. The squad is useful without doing everything for you. There are a few points where you really get a sense of how squad tactics work when your buddies lay down covering fire and you move to flank.
There were two things I did not like though. One was weapon selection. The rifle you start out with is just about perfect and I rarely felt any reason to change to one of the other 20 I picked up. There was one level I thought might shake things up a bit. I was stripped of all weapons ‘cept a pistol with a single clip. Well, one dead enemy later and there was a friendly supply crate giving me full access to my entire arsenal.
Also, after being the freakin’ Predator in Crysis it was jarring being a regular ol’ human. A few bullet holes and they drop dead quite quickly. Often deaths felt cheap with seemingly random explosions and bad guys that seem to spawn from nowhere.

Well those are what I finished. I’ve been also playing Saints Row The Third. Game is an insane sandbox. I think I may have burnt out on doing random crap. Little of the story has actually been done.

I’m pondering what to do next. Assassin’s Creed, Dead Island, Dead Space maybe…

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Vita gets PSone Support

Sony FINALLY updated the Vita to support PSone classics. I swear if I’d realized support wasn’t out of the box I wouldn’t have traded in my PSP and games. Oh well, trade in paid for Lumines VITA and Sly Cooper HD.

Sony it seems can’t do anything good without screwing up part of it, so while we got PSone support, only 9 games are ‘officially’ supported with promises of regular updates. Seriously? Ah well, UNofficially it seems the vast majority work anyways. I’ve run Castlevania SoTN (still awesome) and Legend of Dragoon (never played it before, doesn’t appear to have aged well). Final Fantasy VII works as well, though I notice Sony was damn sure to make sure that was officially supported.

As far as how it actually works, looks great. Vita’s screen is gorgeous and the size is very nearly the PSone’s original resolution. What looks blown up and blurry on my 32” TV looks sharp and clear on the Vita. The missing buttons L2, R2, L3 and R3 are covered with the rear touch pad. Works fine. Curiously enough when a PSone game loads we get a PSP warning screen, looks like they’re emulating the PSP, not a PSone. Weird.

My only complaints are for the Vita itself; memory cards are to expensive and my thumbs have a tendency to rest on the speakers muffling sound.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Things That Piss Me Off

I hate it when a webpage is loading and I immediately see the link I want. A split second before I click it a goddamn toolbar loads shifting the page making me click the wrong link. Now I have to wait for the new page to load so I can back to the page I was just at and re-click the link I already clicked!

Pisses me off.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

End Credits

So, who actually watches these things anyway? Out of the 500 name sin that list we recognize what, 10? The director, composer, main cast, possibly a special effects person though since Stan Winston died…

So what’s it take to watch this stuff? Of course we always have to watch during Marvel movies to catch that end tease. Even Daredevil had one. Pixar plays bloopers that aren’t actually bloopers. Seriously that’s not actors flubbing a line, they animate screwups – and it’s awesome. Of course having a great score during the credit crawl helps a bunch instead of some generic instrumental.

Which brings me to the point of this post – I just watched the credits for War for Cybertron. Yes, that 2 year old game. I booted it back up because Fall of Cybertron marketing made me want to give it another spin. While fiddling with setting I accidently hit ‘Credits’, and then Soundwave started playing Stan Bush. Holy crap how did I miss this?

Got me thinking, what other credit sequences are noteworthy? The only other game that sprung to mind was Bayonetta (the pole dance starts at 3:35).

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Baby Got Back–Movie Edit

Mad props to the editor. I can’t imagine how long it took to find all the appropriate sound bytes.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Lord Stark and the Iron Throne

iron-throne-465x628

Buawhaha, I love this.

Originally found @ unreality.com

I just realized…

The Olympics are always in an election year. For some reason this blows my mind.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ubisoft can’t count

I just got an email from Amazon offering to preorder Assassin’s Creed 3. Thing is, I just bought four Assassin’s Creed games during the Steam Summer sale. Shouldn’t this be 5…?

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Random Thoughts

Why do paintings of Adam and Eve have belly buttons?

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Thoughts: The Dark Knight Rises

I’m kinda flashing back to summer 2009 here. Iron Man vs The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight won both critically and financially. Me, I liked both but at the end of the day The Dark Knight was depressing and Iron Man was fun as hell.

Don’t get me wrong, The Dark Knight Rises is a good movie and I suggest everyone see it. I' don’t want to go into details cause you know, spoilers, but it’s a dark movie. A few month from now though when it’s out on Blu-ray and I’m bored looking at my shelf for a movie to watch, I’m probably going to chuckle and pop in ‘Puny god! Puny god!’ instead of ‘Ow my back! Get a chiropractor.’

4 out of 5 Stars

Loses a half point for one big plot element I hated, highlight to read:
Bruce hasn’t been Batman for going on eight years since The Dark Knight. He’s shown to be a depressed recluse who’s physically crippled from his adventures as Batman. Why? I can understand him being depressed and out of shape, but crippled? Granted crime fighting is physically draining, but he didn’t really do it that long. The Dark Knight indicated Batman had been around for a bout a year. Professional athletes barring major injury are good for 10-15 years or so. Batman certainly had no problem running from the cops at the end of The Dark Knight. Eight years later he needs a cane to walk across this bedroom. Later he goes toe-to-toe against Bane. It’s a stupid, unnecessary plot point that makes no sense.

Also, Catwoman wearing high heels in her burglar outfight is stupid. She’s supposed to fight in that? Course Black Widow wore high heeled combat boots… WTF
/rant off

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Neo co-stars in Office Space

So what would it be like if The One  had to put up with Milton? Great editing here.

*Courtesy gorillamask.com

Monday, July 16, 2012

Frank Castle on laundry day

What happens when Thomas Jane and Ron Pearlman do a fanfilm? A slow buildup to awesome.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

F*CK and YEAH!

So we knew that High Noon, the developer of the good Transformers games was going to be working on a Marvel game. Now, thanks to SDCC we have the announcement – BOOBIE- er Deadpool!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Already?!

So I saw a commercial for a Christmas movie marathon on Hallmark channel. In July. Did I miss something?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Star Trek TNG on Bluray

Holy crap that’s an upgrade.Take note any company that claims to remaster something, this is how you show it off.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Deadpool Fanfilm

Take note Marvel, this is what we want with our Deadpool movie. Insanity, swordplay, yellow thought bubbles, tacos and boobs.

*Originally found at Topless Robot

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Japan Does it Again

I go through phases where I follow wrestling for awhile before deciding it sucks, until the next time. It’s been awhile since the last time I went out of my way to catch The Undertaker, but this video caught my eye here.

WTF Japan, as if the lifesize Gundam wasn’t enough, you give us this?

Jokes aside, I do have to give props to the guy’s skill in pulling those moves and not accidently killing the girl. I picture them backstage eating ice cream together.

Found via collegehumor’s  15 WTF Moments in Wrestling, the Invisible Wrestler is also quite good.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Superhero CafĂ©–Mario Edition

Always gotta love HISHE. Coming soon – The Avengers!

Friday, April 6, 2012

On The Shelf

So I’ve got a bit of a backlog of books I wanted to get into and I’ve essentially wasted a day or two deciding. What to do, what to do… These are the options I’m looking at:

God’s Demon – Was a blind buy at a used book store where the cover caught my eye and the description looked interesting. One of the top demons in Hell, a fallen angel, decides he was wrong and tries to get back into Heaven.

WWW: Wake – Gaga reviews from the science fiction book club coerced me into getting this one. First in a trilogy. In it, a blind girl gets an experimental surgery to give her sight. She ends up seeing the web and a consciousness (Skynet) growing. Or something like that.

Neuromancer – The book that coined the term ‘cyberpunk’. It’s supposed to be a classic and that makes me nervous. If it’s good fine, but what if it sucks? This is why Seven Samurai hasn’t been watched yet.

What to do, what to do…

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Freebie from GOG.com

For the next 48 hours GOG.com is providing a free copy of Fallout. Cool, I lost my disc awhile ago…

Monday, April 2, 2012

Well it’s Official…

… today is my first day off(?) after being laid off. I’m going to take a month and goof off. Also, I leave you with Metal Back to the Future…

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Demons, Robots and Miniature Giant Space Hamsters

So we’ve got a couple announcements today.

First up is Diablo III, which will come out on May 15. Yay! I have fond memories of Diablo being one of the few games I’ve ever beaten. Hardware prevented me from playing Diablo 2 until well after release and well, graphic may not be everything but they are something and I could never get past the low-res eyesore. Let’s hope Blizz doesn’t screw this up.

Apparently there’s going be a ‘Enhanced Edition’ of Baldur’s Gate. One of my favorites series of all time one that I never actually finished. A GOG.com version is currently installed right now, I ah, got sidetracked a month ago just before entering the city itself. Hopefully this will rock.

Finally we have confirmation of an HD collection for the PS2 Ratchet and Clank games. Hells yeah baby!

Monday, March 12, 2012

TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 1

Thanks to another tip from cheapassgamer I nabbed a copy of Game of Thrones Blu-Ray for $35. Thrones hype has been all around the internet proclaiming it to be the best HBO series ever, or at least since the Sopranos (which sucked) and OZ (which didn’t). Well let’s say this - it arrived Saturday and I watched it Sunday, all of it. So what kind of show manages to grab my attention and hold it for 10 straight hours? A very good show, that’s what.

Let’s assume I haven’t lost my mind. I hesitate to go into detail on the plot as each episode almost feels like a season finale with a cliffhanger ending. Episode one’s ending brilliantly sets the tone for the show reminding me of the end of the movie The Mist ( oh hell no, they did NOT just do that!'). There are heroes you cringe when bad thing happen and villains you cheer when they get their Golden Crowns. Each episode makes you want to catch the next one right away, I can’t imagine watching this on TV and waiting a week.

Acting is solid all around. Peter Dinklage gets all the press but the real standouts to me are the child actors, especially Maisie Williams who plays Arys Stark. Production values are also very solid, the only minor complaint is a large battle toward the end of the season occurs off screen obviously due to budget issues.

Technically the Blu-ray set seems a little weird. Video and sound are perfect as we’ve come to expect from HBO but the episodes are spread weirdly throughout the discs with 2 eps on disc 1, 3 on 2, 1 on 3, 4 on 4 and 1 episode on disc 5. It’s weird. And bonus material shows up on all discs and then points you to the disc with the actual content when you select it. I’d much prefer 2 episodes per disc with a dedicated bonus disc.

A final note, this is indeed a medieval HBO drama with al the sex death you’d expect. Bad things happen to good people, taboos are explored and they very wisely age up one particular character in the books from 13 to 17ish. This is not a show for the kiddies are the squeamish.

4 1/2 Stars out of 5*

*Half a star knocked of for minor bonus feature annoyances, seriously who designed that?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Oscar Snubs–Harry Potter

So I watched the Oscars the other day and while it wasn’t as boring as I really expected considering I figured I’d seen a grand total of 3 movies that were nominated (Transformers 3, Rango and Potter), I do have to say this is crap.

Has there ever been a series that went 8 movies long? OK, Bond and Land Before Time, has there ever been a film series 8 movies long that told a complete story with the same cast sticking through w/o pulling any contract renegotiation bullshit and was you know, good?

Not that I can think of. And the wonderful people at How It Should Have Ended has answered the question of what Harry Potter and the gang are feeling….

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Playstation VITA

I’d been planning on getting a VITA when it comes out in a few weeks, however those plans were put on hold last month when my center’s closure was announced and I’d be laid off. So I was a sad panda…

This past Monday however I had  a shiny new import VITA sitting on my porch along with Uncharted and an 8GB memory card. I’d won a raffle from cheapassgamer after a donation to the Child’s Play fundraiser awhile ago. Yay!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Movie Quickviews

I thought I’d make a few comments on some recent movies I’ve seen. Not reviews per se…

Super 8 – Boring, catch ET instead.

The Smurfs – Not as bad as you’d think.

Horrible Bosses – Pretty good though a bit darker than I expected. You go into these movies expecting wacky hijinks and life lessons to be learned, instead we get actual murder.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides – Yawn. I think we’re done here.

Bad Teacher – They accidently had a funny part when she’s grading papers. Otherwise movie is dull and boring. I’m also unsure if we’re supposing to be actually rooting for Diaz’s character. It’s not that she’s a teacher with a few vices, she’s a repugnant human being with no redeeming qualities at all.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil – Catch the red ban trailer, all the good parts are there.

I caught a few older movies as well recently:

The Hunt for Red October – Still awesome.

Air Force One – Another one that holds up quite well, logic leaps aside. Glenn Close really should’ve signed the paper.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

I’m Still Here

Rants, depressed musings and reviews incoming. I swear.

Followers

Blog Archive