This week on Netflix Movie Friday I’m going to discuss the Thiller/Horror movie “The Happening”.

M. Night Shyamalan, responsible for movies such as Signs, The Village, and the ever popular Bruce Willis flick Sixth Sense, brings us yet another chapter in his writing/directing role with The Happening. Shyamalan’s brand of dramatic endgame twists is featured in this movie, however the twist this time, no pun intended, is that it happens only moments after the movie starts.

The film starts off in a park with just everyone in their humdrum activities when suddenly a mind-altering phenomenon takes control of everyone which then causes them to commit suicide. The film then switches to Elliot Moore, played by Mark Walhlberg, a high school science teacher who seems to be the charismatic type. The story continues as everyone starts suspecting of a terrorist attack. An evacuation of the city occurs as everyone attempts to flee whatever is attacking people. At the risk of not spoiling the film and it’s crazy plot.

Because there is no distinct antagonist there is a ton of face shots of the main characters. While I don’t complain when Elliot’s wife Alma, played by Zooey Deschanel is on screen, but there’s only so much face time one can have of Wahlburg or John Lequizamo.

One of the best parts of the movie is the music of the movie. The presentation of the eerie mood musics is fantastic. It’s a great setting for a thriller movie. However, the film itself does not do the music justice. Which leads to the rest of the movie.

The film itself is easily described as a thriller/horror movie. Unfortunately for the film it doesn’t really seem to do either concept well. It the basic concept of the movie would have been much better had it been a basic suspense film. Writing is also an issue as there is a ton of explanations of the attack even though the obvious answer is explained. The character interactions between Wahlberg and Deschanel’s characters are flaky at best. The newly wed couple seems to have issues of trust themselves as secrets seem to be kept from one another.

Overall, The Happening seems to be yet another sort of social commentary movie about how we are treating the earth and what the after effects are. At it’s very best, The Happening isn’t a terrible movie but when it comes down to it, it doesn’t really bring anything new to the party either.


Netflix Predicted Rating: 1.6/5
My Rating: 2/5

Review: Perserpolis

So there comes a time in all of our movie watching carrer’s (or hobbies in my case) where we all have to take a hit. Sometimes it is having to watch a Uwe Boll movie, sometimes it’s having to watch a painfully terrible parody movie along the lines of “Scary Movie”. For me I had to pop that virginity bubble by watching the international indie film Persepolis. Don’t get me wrong. This is a fine film and the ideas that it presents are very valid. But I can’t say that I enjoyed my time with the film.

The story is about a woman named Marjane who is looking back on her life and what went wrong and oddly, how nothing went the way she wanted. The main story takes place in 1978 Iran, at the height of the civil conflict within the country. Marjane is a young girl at this point of the story and is being influenced by her family and parents about what is right and what is wrong. As a child there are several traumatizing experiences that she goes through. A good example is when she sees her house blown to smithereens by a random bombing run. Thankfully her family was out for the time being and she was coming back from school. Her neighbors were not as lucky. The story continues that her parents shipping her off to Europe because it just wasn’t safe for her at that time. There she learned a lot of valuable life lessons and “skills” as well as seeing what other cultures are like. Eventually she gets tired of being lost and confused in the foreign country and calls her parents to send her home. Back home she decides to take the initiative and attend University and to get married and build a family. Without spoiling too much lets just say she’s not too successful in that prospect.

As a historical commentary, Persepolis is an incredibly impactful film showing the life of the average Tehran family as the social crisis blooms around them. And then again when the film brings Marjane to France to grow up. The scenes in France were particularly interesting when the art style brings up an interesting art style that’s very akin to the Beatles “Yellow Submarine” cartoon.

That said, the story just was very bland. There were no real twists or turns, or any real sort of character development. The writing is very poor really because there was no depth to the characters. Everyone acted as you would have expected them to act. One of the saving graces about the film is the acting. I do like how they used the French language to portray the story. I really find languages other than English are extremely effective in it’s emotionally execution.

With a subpar plot and an ending worth of being on the lines of the Halo 2 ending, Persepolis really has nothing going for it. To say that the acting is decent is stretching it. Really the only takeaway that I see is that the art style is very unique. I don’t recommend watching Persepolis unless you are a hardcore indie film watcher. Perhaps when my movie tastes age, I’ll come back to it and enjoy it for what it is, but there’s not enough meat on this bone to enjoy.

Netflix Predicted Rating: 3.9/5
My Rating: 2/5

Review: Exam

Let me start by saying that Exam has probably one of the most unique yet, cliché movies I’ve seen in a while. The story is simple: Eight job applicants in a sealed room are given instructions to answer a discerning question which may lead them to the job of their lives. Handed blank exams they are to answer the question. When one applicant attempts to answer the question, she is ejected. With one down and seven left, they must now see what it takes to figure out the question for the answer.

These indie films these days are getting a lot of attention. As per last one of the previous movies, May. Exam is essentially a Saw concept with much less violence and much less blood and defiantly 100% less Danny Glover. This is a very sharp little movie that really brings into perspective of, how far are you willing to go for the answer.

The movie starts with all the main applicants as racial melting pot. Stuard Hazeldine is quick to establish each of the motives by assigning each of the applicants, minus the initial rejected applicant, a personality. There’s the smooth talking womanizer named “White”, the seemingly scientifically intelligent “Black”, the risk taking gambler “Brown”, the Frenchmen “Deaf”, the book smart “Dark”, the timd and shy “Blonde”, and the cross dresser (hey it’s the voice!) “Brunette”. Reason being is the applicants thought it be best to keep their names discreet through the process. This idea was executed perfectly in “Reservoir Dogs” and is equally effective here as well.

When you throw all those personalities in one room to answer and unknown question, you get an interesting result. White, played by Luke Mably, turns in a stellar performance by taking charge in the beginning by pushing the boundaries of the rules instigated by the Invigilator. The film’s premise revolves around this group of people who sees what they can or can’t do about the rules and ultimately tries to eliminate each other from the potential position while at the same time testing each other’s breaking point.

Exam is yet another high quality independent film that combines both the stresses of movies like “Saw” with the survivalist instincts of the reality show “Survivor” but with none of either of the flaws.


Netflix Rating Prediction: 3.7
My Rating: 4/5

Review: [REC]

[REC] is a movie that stars Angela(Manuela Velasco), a reporter tasked with following a group of firefighters with her cameraman Pablo(Pablo Rosso) to see what it’s like in a life of a firefighter. On a regular emergency call to an apartment building leads to some unexpected run-ins with the undead variety. Soon after the first encounter, the residents to the apartment as well as the firefighter officials and police find themselves trapped in the ticking time bomb of zombies by the government. Filmed from only the camera man’s perspective, it automatically show’s it’s Shaky Cam view.

Does that sound familiar any? It should, as 2008’s Quarantine(Dowdle) was based off this 2007 international film. The difference here is that [REC] seems to pull off the horror genre quite well. I think the biggest draw to [REC] is that it is filmed with Spanish as the primary language with English(or whichever other country) subtitles. The fast paced, dramatic language lends itself quite well to this genre of horror. In typical shaky cam movies I find that it is difficult to maintain momentum during the fast parts because of the slower language barrier, whereas with the Spanish language, it really has a good sense of urgency.

While the initial story presented seems a bit simple and straightforward, there is a whole other layer of story that, unfortunately presented at the end of the film, could have been more elaborated on. Stuff about the girl presented in the film being more than innocent as well as her roots tracing all the way to the Vatican and the Holy Church. It feels like this whole other story was to be meant as an ARG(Alternate Reality Game look them up) or something. It would be more effecive I think for this whole meta story to be placed through the movie rather than at the end.

That being said, [REC] is probably one of the best horror movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Though I have to give it a lower score just because of the pop scares that really get old fast, but I have to concede that other than that, the movie has really has no other methods of doing what it does best. The bottom line is this: Is this movie good? Answer? Yes. It is pretty good.

Netflix Rating Prediction: 4/5

My Rating: 4/5

Review: May

First let me start off by saying that this movie is very creepy. If you’re easily creeped out by dolls with blank faces, or easily disturbed by stalker-ish personas, you can stop reading here. Go on. Are they gone yet? Okay.

This is a pretty confusing movie. There seems to be several different themes going on in the movie. Bits of humor, horror, thriller are strewn through the movie. Overall the film is pretty dark in it’s execution. For the most part this is not a horror movie. But it is at the same time.

The story is about May(Angela Bettis), a girl who never got the good end of life. Being a new kid in school is hard, but being diagnosed with lazy eye at a young age didn’t help her social life either. One of her birthdays she was given a doll as a gift. But being that things never worked out for her, she never was allowed to play with the doll either. Kind of like a play-with-your-eyes, not-your-hands attitude. Fast-forward to 17-18 year old May where her social skills haven’t, lets say leveled up yet and her best friend is still the doll that her parents gave her. Being a healthy young adult she finds herself with a crush on a boy named Adam (Jeremy Sisto) and with no ability to talk let alone make eye contact with him, their relationship has an unusual start. Maybe it was the part where she puts her chin on his hand in a coffee shop when he was taking a nap.

The movie really picks up the pace in creep factor around the 40-minute mark. While not to spoil too much lets just say May and Adam have a brush with some “cannibalistic” tendencies to which Adam freaks out a little nor is not pleased with.

Then there’s a weird scene where May decides to help out at the local daycare center. Her real motivation isn’t exactly revealed as to why she does that but hey, part of that indie like feel right?

It’s very clear that even through May’s trials and tribulations of lack of social life, the central focus is around the doll that was given to her. The glass keeps breaking around the case of the doll that represents some form of oppression that’s stopping her from her life. When the case is broken, her will to live pretty much goes bye bye and whatever life she had left goes downhill.

There’s something to be said about horror movies in this era of scary movies. May brings things down to perspective in horror films by not needing any monsters, aliens or ghosts. While Writer/Director Lucky McKee has something interesting here, it’s just not my cup of horror tea. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, it would be that May a good old-fashioned creep fest by a socially awkward girl who grew up with no friends with a splash of dark comedy for good measure.

Netflix Rating Prediction: 3.5/5

My Rating: 2/5

Review: TiMER

In this day and age of internet matchmaking and speed dating, it's actually surprising that no one's really tackled the subject, and with just reason. Dating can be a very touchy subject and while for some it may be as easy as waking up, some may find it a little more daunting. TiMER attempts to put a spin on the whole dating website concept by nailing it down to an actual biological science.

In the not to distant, but mostly present future, scientists have found out what sciences that happen when two soul mates meet. Implanted with a timer, it will start counting down to when you will meet the person that you will spend the rest of your life with. Unfortunately for Oona (Emma Caulfield), she is nearing her 30th birthday and her timer hasn't started to countdown yet. While I don't really like throwing the word around, Director/Writer Jac Schaeffer really has something indie yet still have the makings of a romantic comedy at the same time, unlike some of the more recent films in this category. Plus, it's got Emma Caufield of Buffy!

Steph (Michelle Borth) plays a great role of the not caring, non-commital stepsister. And why wouldn't you? Working two jobs, one being with seniors all day long and then a bar waitress at night, there's bound to be a few screws loose. Her character is oddly set up as a girl who is willing to look the other way, but only for guys that have been timer equipped. Since her timer hasn't started ticking either, she decides to throw the rulebooks away and go after guys with a timer. Maybe that's why she works two jobs...

Without going further in spoilers, this 2009 comedy seems to hit all the clique romantic points and yet it still manages to have a fresh take on the comedy itself while also maintaining a few plot twists of it's own. If all else, this is the perfect rent-on-a-date movie.

Netflix Rating Prediction: 3.7/5

My Rating: 4/5

Musical Downgrade

So insert sad face. I lost quite a but of ratings recently on the account of a HDD failure. Not to worry though. I still have some from the back up. Plans just got detoured slightly.

Still inconvenient.


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A Musical Update

Still a plugging away at my seemingly endless quest to rate all my music. I've found that I'm not going alphabetically down my music anymore. I think I'll just start doing them by random.

Which leads me to my next completed album Ratitude by Weezer. Overall as much yang as I say about River Cumo's continuing to release album after album I have to say that this album isn't entirely horrible. Some songs worth noting are "The Girl Got Hot" and "Love is the Answer", which includes a very nice ethnically sound. You don't get that very often in rock bands like Weezer. Overall this album scored about a 3.5 out of 5 on the star scale.

Woosh! Off to more music!


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iPhone 4 lineup Edition

This is what it looks like right now. I've been in line since 6 am and it's 10 am....

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iOS4 Edition

Okay so the long awaited iOS4 update for the iOS devices was released today. Much of what makes this newest update highly sought after is it's Multitasking features as well as Folders and 5X Digital zoom, just to name a few other included features. Apple is touting that iOS4 will have over 100 new features for the user as well as 1500 new APIs for developers. The only thing that i have to knock on is the lack of true multitasking and background support for 90% of existing apps. Hopefully developers have already submitted their iOS4 compatible updates for their apps.





iOS4 has been released for iPhone 3G/3GS and the iPod touch platforms with the iPad version to hit later this fall.


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E3 Calm

So it's the calm before E3. Things that will be announced. Things to be announced. It's all comin down in two sleeps.

As per usual I await the unexpected and want to be surprised. At the same time I want to know more about games like Rock Band 3. Final Fantasy XIV.

I hold no neath about Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Knowing enough that Hideo has taken a step back from the director has me worried as really he is the only one to work on a cannon story of Metal Gear. Not to mention rumors of a Microsoft exclusivity. Not excited about Rising. Interested at best.

So soon the hurricane of video games will be on us. Will you be there watching the Press Conferences? I know I will.


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WWDC 2010

We are here at the forefront of the WWDC 2010 conference. New iPhone? OS 4.0? Magic trackpad? Who knows what's on the list of points that Steve Jobs has. I can only imagine how disappointed Gizmodo is by not being able to go. In a way they brought it on themselves by leaking something as big as the newest iPhone.

Amazing little mashup

http://soundcloud.com/dj-dain/dont-worry-im-yours-mashup

You owe it to yourself to listen to this song. It's an amazing background song for when you wanna chill. I haven't felt this chill since I listened to Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. Download links available in the link as well.

Musical Update ~ The Beatles

So I've moved onto the one Beatles CD that I have. Maybe I'll get around to importing the rest from the Boxset that I got a while back.

Wow it's really a testement to how well The Beatles music stands the test of time. Truely fantastic.


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Bang Camero Lite

Quite a good tune by Bang Camero off the Bang Camero II CD. The beat way to describe it is Bang Camero meets The Beatles.


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Musical Update

Just finished all the songs in my "New Music" playlist. Which consists primarily of songs that were obtained from the iTunes Single of the Week. I was througly impressed with some of the songs.

One song that stuck out particularly was Bulletproof by La Roux. If you haven't heard this tune I'd go check it out on the YouTube. It's a great mix of dance and pop music with a weird, yet funky synth solo in the middle. Quite an excellent song.

Now I'm moving on to the Bang Camero CD aptley named Bang Camero II, seeing as this is their second studio album. I already know I'm gonna love their stuff.


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Music Rating

I've begun the long (and hopefully exciting) task of listening to each of my songs on my iTunes library and rating them each.

Let me say I'm totally excited. There's something to be said that I own like 1000 plus songs that I've legitematly purchased.

Every once in a while I will post songs that I find particularly noteworthy. Also I will avoid rehashing songs that are a know quantity of greatness. ie Anything from Journey.

Hope this 'Journey' proves successful. I've been meaning to do this for a long time now and now that I've gotten off my lazy butt I can do it. Plus it helps that I can rate songs on the iPhone already.

Peace!

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Ninja Assassin Edition

Okay so this movie is quite good and much better than the surprise movie that was given to me for my birthday.

My friend and I's birthday is very close together, like next day kind of thing. Well his wife decides that it would be great to gift us a movie for that night for the both of us. We all really totally thought we would be catching Ninja Assassin seeing as how it was the week after that it was released. Not to mention, a manly movie to watch at the time what with the blood and the killing. Also Ninjas who are also Assassin's. What could go wrong? Well the tickets that said New Moon was a first start, and it pretty much went downhill from there. The worst part is she knew that neither of us appreciated any party of the faggy vampires that exist. I mean, really? Glitter? kthxbai. While it was a good gag gift, the novelty instantly faded when both my lack of knowledge of faggy vampires started.

For three months a part of me has been dying to watch the Ninja Assassin. Now that I've watched it I have a sense of relief. Satisfaction also seems to come to mind knowing that I've just watched an excellent flick.

PS. You owe me one better movie. Anything is better then the trash that I watched. Glitter?

Muse Concert Tonight!

Muse is finally here! I wanna go stalk them : (


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Moblie Blogging! Get!

Testin' out some of my wicked new Mobile Blogging Tech. Also Moblie Picture making.



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This Week March 22nd Edition

Following the release of the two of the biggest games in the last month, God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII, I can safely say that I have no more games to buy. Not till E3 that is. But cross my fingers as I really need to stop spending frivolous amounts of money on the ol' VGs. I even resorted to trading in some games for the new Pokemon Heart Gold. I will miss you my copy of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days...

That being said, I really hope that Sony has some big guns for this year's E3. There's practically no games coming out this winter short of SOCOM 4. Exclusives that is. The less than stellar reveal of the new Playstation Move controller might be all fine and dandy on the outside, but I personally feel as if it is just a slightly shinier version of the Nintendo Wii Controller.

Microsoft has it's own thing going on with Project Natal. I can't say I'm too thrilled to see or play that either, mostly seeing as how that tech is a carbon copy of the old Playstation Eyetoy tech back on the PS2. I'm not really looking to have Microsoft wow me or anything, but I just think their backend of '10 is pretty substandard as well.

Nintendo is always the crazy, unpredictable contender of the three big ones. Maybe we'll see more about the Vitality Sensor that was revealed at last year's E3. I really would like to see that kind of tech established in some sort of horror based game. I don't care what the sales or the critics say, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is by far the best horror/suspense game for me from '09. If they released an updated version of Shattered Memories with Vitality Sensor support, I might, might buy it. Or at the very least rent it.

Also my friend is consistently bugging me to play Gears of War 2 online with him. I play with him once and now I can't find time to play the excruciatingly long Final Fantasy XIII....

Sonova **********************************

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2010/03/08/exclusive-south-parks-first-ever-deleted-scene/

This has got to be the best deleted scene ever from any South Park episode ever. I know they don't normally delete scenes but I can see why this one wasn't allowed.

Also it was a really well done episode.

Twenty-augt-ten is going to to be a trippy year.

Lets see, we have,

• Less than stellar reveal of the long awaited, and long rumoured iPad
• Leap year breaking the PSN on the phat PS3s
• Termination of the co-founders of Infinity Ward on the account of "Insubordination"

What else are we going to see in 2010. Hopefully some more big news.

Very Heavy Rain Edition

So this week marks the release of the second most anticipated game to come out exclusively for the PS3, Heavy Rain.

This game has been in development for quite some time now and is finally out. I had the arduous privilege of playing the game at PAX 09 and was instantly sold on how cinematic the game turned out being. Now playing the final release of the game makes me wonder what other games there are to play.

The best thing about Heavy Rain that I look forward most is playing the game completely differently a second time around. Everyone always raves on how good games are when the player chooses the story based on their actions (ie. Mass Effect), I personally think that Heavy Rain is going to be the end-all-be-all of those types of games.

Most of what makes Heavy Rain for me is the cinematic presentation of the characters. Quantic Dream has put so much effort into making you love the characters and it shows. As the player you almost feel sad for Ethan Mars, the main character of the game, aside from the other three characters.

I never say this often, but Heavy Rain is a big reason for getting a PS3. That and MGS4, but that's another story :).

So this is why the internet has been running slow lately...

http://kotaku.com/5474068/the-starcraft-ii-beta-test-has-officially-begun

For those who are deeply interested, this blog should not be the first place to hear about this news.

BioShock 2 Completed

Put the finishing touches on BioShock 2 and I am extremely pleased with the game. There were some bumps in the beginning but they all began to smooth out as the game progressed. Guns work much better in this sequel and the upgraded versions on the old Plasmids make for a new twist to the gameplay.

Multiplayer is something that I can see me going back to playing in the future. Very fast paced with almost all the elements from the single player still intact such as hacking of machines and researching enemies for damage bonuses. Think of a Quake 2 multiplayer with Plasmids. It's pretty insane.

The story however is really only relevant to people that have at least played the first BioShock, and even more so for the BioShock hardcore fans. There are several nods to the first game that most newcomers won't understand.

BioShock 2 suffers from something I like to call Extended Endgame Syndrome. It feels like the ending of the game takes too long to finish, something that I think the first BioShock game suffered from as well.

Go get BioShock 2 if you want to go back to the world of Rapture I say. If you want to play BioShock 2 then I'd highly recommend going to see BioShock 1 first.

Chinese New Year 2010 Edition

Happy Chinese New Year! Hope everything in this year 'round everything goes well with everything! To celebrate at the Applesauce Blog here are some inspirational and inspiring Tigers!

First Look - Bioshock 2

I've gotta say, Bioshock 2 is an amazing game, for the first couple hours that I've played. Most of that is due in part that it is basically the first game but with a few gameplay touch ups here and there.

The biggest change for Bioshock vets is that the Wrench has been replaced with an all purpose melee with all weapons. So no need to swap to a melee weapon to use it. Since you play the role of a Big Daddy this time around, the Drill becomes an effective melee tool as well. It works as you would think, run up to bad guys and drill on them till death does them part. They've also limited the Drill usage to how much fuel you have left, which can easily be regarded as ammo. Everything else is as you last imagined, guns feel the same. The Rivet gun is super powerful just like in the first game. Splicers drop in just three or four hits easily.

Now I have to rap on some stuff that I didn't find as impressive. If you were planning on returning to Rapture and seeing a somewhat of a utopian, clean society you can leave those thoughts at the door. Everything has a broken and destroyed feel to it but with due reason as the story does take place 10 years after the events of the first Bioshock. Splicers have overrun Rapture and chaos is seen everywhere. It's almost as if the game takes one too many queues from Fallout 3 in it's post-apocalyptic themes. Since one of the biggest characters in the first game was Rapture itself, it's only fitting to think that the city has become more mature and wreck less. That said, Rapture's new facelift does grow with you over time. It just takes a bit getting used to.

Another problem that I found, that I hope it's just an issue on the consoles, is that I found there to be much more pop in than the first Bioshock. When you first pull up the Drill you'll notice it takes a while for the textures to load. Wall textures look extremely low poly and seem to pop in more frequently than before. Again that said, you won't be looking at the deails when you are bashing peoples heads in with a Rivet Gun, and some of the smoke and fire effects look absolutly incredible. It's just I was hoping to see some major improvements or upgrades. I will say though the water effects are just stunning. There never seems to be a shortage of waterfalls in Rapture as the game almost goes out it's way to show off the water flowing down the players screen. It almost gets annoying, especially in a firefight when you don't need your vision to be impaired.

The newly upgraded Little Sister system seems like a great addition to the series. the rules is the same as before, you kill the Big Daddy watching over the Little Sister to have a chance at more ADAM. This time around they've added an Adopt feature. When you Adopt a Little Sister you carry her around and when you find a dead enemy body filled with ADAM, you can send the Little Sister to do what she does best. The gameplay then becomes sort of a Defend the Objective style gameplay. As the Little Sis does her thing, you'll get swarmed with all kinds of Splicers in attempt to take the ADAM that the Little Sister is harvesting. Succeed and you will be rewarded for more ADAM. After about two or three bodies you can then return the Little Sister to one of the many vents in Rapture and here is where the gameplay shifts back to the original Bioshock. You have either the choice of Rescuing the girl or Harvesting her. When you Harvest the girl, you get not only the ADAM that she collected during her blood spree, but a sizable amount of ADAM but in return she will not survive. Rescuing the Little Sister will turn her back into an innocent little child and just barley enough ADAM to get you by. Of course, whichever option you pick, Big Sister will be right behind you. These upgraded Big Daddy wannabes are nothing to be messed around with. Think of Spider-man, but with a Drill for a hand, and the same kind of Plasmids (and Tonics?) that you have. Thankfully there is enough of a warning apon their arrival for you to prepare for the fight.

The Tonic and Plasmid system seems unchanged from the first game. You get Plasmids and Tonics and you equip them. If you need more slots, you spend more ADAM. I've not played through far enough to enjoy any of the new Plasmids, but there are a few notable new Tonics that I will always have equipped. One of which negates the Eve eating features of alcohol. It's been too many times when I've accidentally picked up one too many Gin bottles and having it eat all my EVE.

In short over my first few hours of the game, I am enjoying my return to Rapture, although there are a few bumps along the road. I probably won't do a review of the game seeing as how everyone else will be. I'll pride myself in doing games that no one probably will be playing. Something like maybe Shadow of Destiny for the PSP...

Not Guilty Pleasure Edition

Yea that's right, not so guilty. In fact if I didn't have Firefly I'd be mighty disappointed on what I would watch on a rainy day. Now I ain't saying it's a rainy day, just saying I love me some Firefly.

Upcomming Attractions Edition

Things I am looking forward to most this week

Bioshock 2

Bioshock was one of the games that I was looking forward to the most. Even more so when the first game was announced for the PS3. Bioshock 2 will be no different. It's hard to tell how the game will turn out. Much of what made the original Bioshock so unique was it's environment and setting. This time around, Rapture has changed a plenty showing more scars and destruction. All of the prestine and asthetics looks to be gone and replaced with a more post-apocalyptic feel. I'm not one to judge a game before it comes out, but I am excited to play as one of the Big Daddies this time around. You get a Drill. You get a Drill!

If anything, I am also thinking that Bioshock 2 will start a bad habit of me buying stuff that I really don't need. Namely the Vinyl soundtrack containing the first Bioshock's musical score. Most modern people don't have vinyl record players including myself but i'll be dammed if I find one for cheap cause I wanna listen to the soundtrack on a vinyl damnit!

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

Star Ocean is one of the JRPGs that I've always wanted to get into. Trying to stomach my way through Star Ocean 3 was tough. I don't even think I made it though the first five or so hours. I attribute that to the terrible english dubbing. Perhaps this time around things will be different. I mean Square Enix has shown that it can handle better voice acting now with FFXIII around the corner. Plus, the International Edition of the game features the Japanese language track, something not found on it's Xbox 360 predecessor.

Heavy Rain Demo

With any luck the Heavy Rain demo should not disappoint. I played it at PAX 09 and cannot speak any more highly of it. Not even just the visuals being the way they are, awesome, but the way it's the way the story unfolding that interests me the most. The guys over at Quantic Dream really know what they're getting into with this game and it may sound like a clique by now but if you have a PS3, this is a game that you have to get.

Games in Review - BRAID Edition

So lemme make this short and sweet. This game is really, really, reallllly hard. Braid takes the traditional side scrolling platforming and adds a time based twist. This is the kind of game that you can't really die in. Just like in the re-imagining of Prince of Persia.

Without giving too much away about the story, you play the role of Tim. A mild mannered type man who as the protagonist of the game, is trying to search for his lost Princess. A very simple idea for such a complex game.

In terms of gameplay, it's got the basic side scrolling aspects as well as jumping on enemies to defeat them. Thrown through the levels are puzzle pieces that you pick up that in the end you can use to piece together the portrait for that level. The game also introduces the time mechanic where with the press of a button, time moves backwards, allowing you to retry some of the games jumps, enemies, or more importantly for puzzle solving.

It's hard not to compare Braid to the likes of Super Mario Bros and the lesser known game Blinkx, but it really is a breath of fresh air for the side scrolling platformer. With puzzles that will kick your ass, then kick you while you're still down, and then when you get back up they'll maul you with a mace, how can you not resist? The ending is another event to behold as it's got a nice surprise to it.

In short, if you haven't played this game yet, you have no reason not to seeing as how it's on nearly on every modern platform.

Airsoft Edition

This is going to be on my sights for my next purchase.

Games in Review - No More Heroes 2 Edition

There’s a lot to be said about how crazy movies and comics can get. It’s safe to say that No More Heroes 2 easily adds itself to the crazy section of my media.

The game takes place three years after the events of the first No More Heroes game. Santa Destroy has been overrun by the all kinds of evil corporations. The UAA (United Assassin’s Association) has even changed from the first game, citing Assassination as the new extreme sport.

Travis Touchdown returns to Santa Destroy only to find that the way to the top has changed from 10 Assassins to 51 Assassins. The same plot from NMH1. Kill all the assassins in your way to reach the top. This time however for Travis, it has gotten personal and revengeful. And that’s the jist of the story this time around. It’s hard not to compare this game to Mark Neveldine’s and Brian Taylor’s Crank 2: High Voltage.

A few things have changed since NMH1 game. Gone is the open world aspect. Traveling between missions and locations has been super streamlined this time around by just providing a list of places to go. Here is where you’ll navigate the Ranking Missions, Side Missions or the vendors of clothing or weapons.

Jeane has gained some weight from the first game.

The meat of the gameplay, the battle system is taking straight from NMH1. Pressing the Z button locks onto the nearest enemy. The A button is the all purpose attack button. Pointing the Wii Remote up unleashes a flurry of fast attacks while pointing the Remote down lets out a series of slow stronger attacks. Holding down the A button will cause Travis to unleash a charged super attack. When the Beam Katana runs out of energy you'll have to charge it up by pressing the 1 Button and feverishly shake the Remote. Occasionally killing an enemy with one the several wrestling moves or when the lower right hand screen Tiger is out will cause a slot machine to appear. The results are always random but matching three images will net you a sort of ultra move for Travis. One of which transforms the player into a Tiger and allows you to maul enemies. I kid you not. The one thing I found a little off was the emergency evade technique, which does what is advertised, but always seems to send you farther away from the enemy, thus not giving the player any opportunity to counter-attack. Overall I'd say the fighting mechanics do not have a steep learning curve and are quite simple, even for first time players.

In between the Ranking Battles with assassins you’ll be provided with all sorts of fun side mission mini-games, all with varying rewards such as improved stats and money. There are several Side Missions, similar to the ones in NMH1, that you can take on for money. All the mini games are presented in old school style and the developers went as far as to recreate the real tinny sounds as to make it sound like. Even upon booting the mini-games there is a recreation of blowing of a Cart and inserting it into the system. There are also some Revenge Side Missions you can unlock once you progress the story far enough, though I played through about five of them and saw no bonuses. Perhaps if you finished all the missions you would be rewarded with new moves.

Take some time to pimp out Travis with some clothes with pizazz.

The NMH2 developer pressed the pedal to the metal and seemed to forget to let go. There’s just so many wild and insane things that are done in NMH2 that it’s almost impossible to nail each one of them down, from the Tetris like Side Missions to exercising your pet cat because she gained too much wait from the second game. You won’t even mind the periodical self-awareness of the game’s dialogue or the short length.

iPad's Power - Apple's Forward Thinking

There's an interesting article on Maclife.com talking about the spec of the A4 Chip. The same chip that is powering Apple's iPad. The article brings up a lot of good ideas but what interested me the most is how Apple practically made the A4 Chip with all it's mobile devices in mind, specifically the iPhone and other future iPads. The article continues to talk about how the A4 has a "aggresive power management" seeing how it has a better battery life than the average Macbook.

So yes, the iPad may not be the best idea that Apple's come out with in the last decade, but it is a great stepping stone for other mobile devices. Give them a few more years and hopefully we'll see some pretty awesome tech comming out of Apple. Not only will this improve future Apple products, but it also ignite the competition into making better and greater things themselves.

Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/ipad_cpu_all_you_need_know_about_apple_a4

Guilty Pleasure Edition

I throughly enjoyed the actual real show. Always go to it when I get the chance and when it comes local.

Inaugural First Edition!

Hello there!

This is my first Inaugural First Blog! Here I'll be posting all things that I find more relevant than not. Namely games, events, and general internet related stuffs.

Catch you on the flip side! Or, sooner than later!