How bout a dose of Crank?

No...not that crank...I am talking about the Jason Statham movies. While I at first was somewhat skeptical on the overall quality of this seemingly ordinary action film after my viewing of both films in a row I can say I am hooked and that these films are definitely worth your time.

The story plays out in a similar way to an old gangster movie. Mob hitman wants out...the only way out is death. However this is where it deviates from the norm. Statham's character is poisoned with a lethal cocktail shot and given an hour to live before his heart stops. He has to find a way to stay alive by boosting his adrenaline while the whole time trying to figure out who did this to him and find a way to cure himself. Without ruining anything I will say he goes on a Grand Theft Auto 3 style rampage throughout the city which makes for quite a film.

The second movie picks up exactly where the first ended but instead of poison, his heart has literally been taken and he has to get it back. I'm not going to go into great length to describe these films as they have both been out for sometime but I would like to give a nod to everyone who worked on these films. Both movies are very stylized in an almost Tarantino or Takashi Miike sort of way. It mixes an elaborate mob story filled with revenge with as I have heard it described less movie more virtual video game feel.

The movies definitely now hold a place in my heart up there with such other style classics as Ichi the Killer and Pulp Fiction. If you have an afternoon check these out you will have a good time.

Crank - 8.7 out of 10
Crank High Voltage - 9.1 out of 10

Rant on the fly

So the other day I got into a discussion about copyright laws and just really wanted to post this on here to show some of the hypocrisy our laws force on us. I am not saying all laws should be null but they should not single out a group of individuals when like crimes happen on a daily basis. I am also not here to get a shit ton of flamer comments trying to correct me by saying my hypothesis is incorrect. I will start by saying in theory this is exactly what is going on and I'm not arguing semantics.

For some time now the government or should I say the MPAA and other such organizations have been after torrenters for supposedly breaking the law. While I can neither say they are or aren't I would like to point out a couple of blunders. The first blunder being the definition of theft they are using. The statement is that it is theft when there is a loss of a sale. I understand this however...flamers get ready...Gamestop does not share any of the money they make off of used games, as stores such as FYE and Blockbuster also do not share money off of pre-owned CDs or DVDs. This means in the strictest following of the law that those stores are in violation of copyright law. They have broken the law by making essentially a private sale. This is the exact same concept beings used towards torrents. I am not saying torrenting is good in every-way and that people do need to support artists but I am saying that this is unfair treatment when it is going on in other areas of life but it is ignored because they still pay sales tax.

While I am not saying this is the perfect way to phrase it I am saying the principal is the same. Game developers don't like used sales because they make no money off of them as the MPAA makes no money off of used DVD sales but you don't see them taking on Gamestop and Blockbuster. I am just saying in the strictest sense this really doesn't seem fair.

PS> sorry about the late blog...I had some projects around the house to do.

Movie review on the fly: Black Dynamite

So I just sat down and watched the blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite. For those who haven't heard of the film it is a parody on classic blaxploitation films in the vein of Shaft and so on. It stars Michael Jai White as Black Dynamite who sets off on a mission of vengeance when he finds out his brother has been murdered. The story is common place for any movies in this genre. Where Black Dynamite sticks out is the over acting, the kung-fu, and just the all around amazing use of writing in this film. The movie is absolutely hilarious on many different levels. It mocks but also shows a lot of love for the genre it is in. The low budget filming errors are left in including a boom mic dropping down next to him while he has to give a serious monologue.

The amount of amazing one liners is staggering and I caught myself rewinding to hear certain lines over and over. The movie came out a year ago but has just now caught a cult following. I heard about it from some friends at work and had to check it out. For anyone who enjoys the old school cinema takes and some awesome kung-fu I would definitely recommend it.

The movie has an incredibly fast pace and seems to fly by and after the first half hour I thought it was almost over. Luckily for me it wasn't and I still had a good amount left. The movie climaxes in the least expected most incredible kung-fu battle. I am not going to spoil any of it because it is one of the most amazing scenes I have ever seen. I was amazing to see Nicole Sullivan from Mad TV and Arsenio Hall in the film. I also want to shout out to Cream Corn because he is one of the best characters in this film. Honestly see this movie. It is a great time. Rated R for a reason.

10 out of 10...can you dig it?

The State of Hip-Hop

So I know I'm a nerd and a nerd who likes hip-hop has not always been the norm. If you told me 10 years ago I would love hip-hop I would have laughed and turned Metallica back on. 10 years later and I can't stand Metallica but I love the current state of hip-hop. It's been in more recent years that I have gained an ear for hip-hop and have made it one of the main types of music I listen to. In the past I have gotten into Atmosphere and pretty much every other artist on the Rhymesayers label. Since then however I have heard a group of new mainstream rappers and everything about them screams indie but it's mainstream and I can't get enough.

I started going through mixtapes and that is how I found a chunk of new artists. Drake, KiD CuDi, Wale, and B.o.B. are my new faves. KiD CuDi has a small collection of mixtapes but then released The Man on the Moon which has become my favorite CD as of late and I will call it one of the best CD's of last year. His flow is very mellow and all his beats are amazingly performed. He by far is my favorite of this group.

Drake I have known about for a minute due to Degrassi re-runs. He has yet to release an actual album but still manages to be on every top 10 list I can think of just by being featured. He can transition between rap and r and b without any issue and he does a good job at it. He however can tear up a beat if needed and has a good flow and vocabulary. I am really looking forward to his first release based on the tracks featuring him and his growing collection of mixtapes.

Wale was one of the newer rappers I have started listening to but by going through his release Attention Deficit and by one of his mixtapes: The Mixtape About Nothing, I have determined he is right up there with CuDi is his flow and beats. He adds in a neat almost disco feel to a lot of his tracks and it gives all of his songs a unique energy behind them. He like most of the other rappers on this list are all "conscious" rappers, meaning they rap about problems and real down to earth things and try to stay positive.

The last of the group is B.o.B. He is the one I know least about due to him being relatively new...at least to me. I have heard one of his mixtapes and am very anxious about his first release. To me he gives off an Andre 3000 vibe and I don't mind that at all. He once is again has a very neat energy to him and I am very excited to see what more he has to show.

Hip-hop is in a great spot for me. Most of these artists make many pop culture references and it just feels right at home amongst the current state of tech with mentions of Twitter amongst other video game references. So if you like these artists give them support and if you haven't give them a go.

Hustle Kings

So I recently picked up the PSN exclusive Hustle Kings. On the outside is a very smooth billiards sim with a lot of neat add ons. The first reason I picked up Hustle Kings besides the fact I like billiards is that I am seeing add on content for the game and its all been free so far which is a big bonus for me when money is an issue. As soon as I loaded up the game and add on content I could tell that a lot of work went into the graphics. Everything is rendered beautifully and even the billiard balls are shiny and bright.

There is a lot on content here to begin with. There is a full online mode where you can wager in-game cash used to purchase other billiard balls, cues, and avatars. There is also free play and campaign. I do have a complaint when it comes to the campaign mode. The difficulty is on a very steep curve. I don't consider myself to be the best billiards player but I know I'm not the worst and even on the easier levels the game is very unforgiving. You miss just a couple of shots and the computer puts a lot of distance in between the two of you. Other than that I do feel the campaign is very well fleshed out and has a lot of play and having to buy into tournaments can make losing punishing in that you may have to go back to make more cash.

If you don't want to go back to play levels you can always just into the online. I have yet to try out this feature as I'd like to unlock some of the extra items beforehand. I did talk of the games DLC and to this date they have released two extra pool tables. They are both shaped tables and add in some extra play that is unique beyond the standard game.

The main feature that sold me on this game was actually quite odd. You have the ability to listen to your own stored music. All you do is from the game press the PS button on your controller, scan down to your music folder, and pick the song or playlist and the game automatically redirects you back to play. The music cancels out the in game music but the sound effects remain intact. It really is very nice to be able to sit back, relax, and play with some of my favorite songs in game.

Overall there is a lot here for the $10 asking price. I find the good to outweigh the bad and highly recommend this game if you are a billiards fan.

Overall - 8.6 out of 10

Heads up...

So just to let everyone know I started a new job this week but I'll try to keep updates frequent...I should be putting something up tomorrow and try to get some set up in advance for the coming days. Thanks much.

Sherlocking around

So I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes. I've got a collection of stories, have seen the movies, have a lot of the older BBC programs about him, etc. One thing I have noticed lately due to this is the amount of TV characters based upon the basic premise of Sherlock Holmes. In just sitting and watching my afternoon and evening TV I can think of 4 right off the top of my head. Gil and Horatio from CSI and CSI Miami, Doctor House off House M.D., and most recently Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory.

Horatio and Gil are similar to Sherlock Holmes in a couple different ways. Horatio has the same take a small piece of evidence and figure out a huge scheme through this that Sherlock used. Gil also uses this but adds in one more minor character flaw that Sherlock had. Gil has problems understanding why people do the things they do. Just as Sherlock based everything on fact Gil does as well and when an opinion based on human nature comes into play he becomes confused. He doesn't understand why people act the way they do.

Doctor House on House M.D. has actually been cited as being created in Sherlock Holmes image. He lives in the same address...albeit in America, and uses the same deducing power one would hold Sherlock accountable for. This makes him the closest interpretation of Sherlock in newer memory besides Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock himself.

My other selection strays a bit from the standard Sherlock. Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. While not a detective in the standard sense he does come up with ideas from a very small deduction and from there institutes a very tedious "investigation". He also has the mass intelligence one would assume of Sherlock and the narcissism commonly associated with him. On top of that he does not understand people in the slightest and instead bases everything in his life on fact and the most appropriate way to do things regardless of normal standards held by the public. I guess in this way he most resembles Sherlock but like I said he isn't your standard as the others are but takes more of a comedic approach.

I'm not sure why I was thinking of this but it kept creeping back into my head so I had to write it out. I just find it funny that even in this modern era we are still pulling ideas from past works of fiction. The character remains largely the same but he gets new adventures. I like to think that all great fiction can live on this way.

Company Loyalty

So this is a blog that I've planned for a minute and have had some talks with a few of my friends about over the past few days or so. Company loyalty in video games is always a big talk and during you hear EA or Activision, Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft and so on and so forth. When I talk about it however I'm going to bring up Nintendo and Square Enix. Recently my g/f went through all her Nintendo games and snagged the Club Nintendo codes off and entered them on Nintendo's site. In just registering products she has had for some time and that have all been paid for she accrued coins, the Club Nintendo currency, and in turn gained a platinum status on the site and earning enough coins to trade in for 3 exclusive Zelda posters and 3 exclusive Mario posters. On top of that because she is a platinum member when Nintendo reveals its end of the year prizes she receives those as well. Now as far as Square Enix goes I am a member on their site and they have a similar set up. I registered Final Fantasy XIII and in turn accrued enough points on their site to gain exclusive postcards featuring scenes from some of their games.

I'm going to point out while these are not necessary at all to determine me buying a game I just wanted to point out how nice it is to see some game companies rewarding company loyalty. I don't consider it buying out the customer because as I said it no where near pays off any games I have purchased but it is a nice little incentive for people who have remained faithful to a certain game company through the years.

As far as Club Nintendo goes the prizes range from an 80 coin WiiWare game to a 800 coin Game and Watch collection for the DS. On Square's site you have from the postcards I mentioned all the way up to custom Ipods. It's nice to finally see some of the game companies giving a little extra for spending money on their product. It makes me glad to be a gamer and receive bonuses such as these. I may not be getting the Square Ipod anytime soon but it's neat to know that there is something out there like that for gamers. I posted the links below and if you have any of their games check them out...maybe you can get a little something for playing.

Club Nintendo
Square Enix

I bought it twice...

So I know a couple people, myself included, who have bought a lot of DLC for various games. The title refers to Oblivion and it's ungodly amount of DLC, which I purchased all of back in the day, and the DLC actually cost more than the original game. I can't fault the game developers for this as I am sure not all of the DLC was made by the time the game came out and in all honesty I didn't have to buy it. My one problem with DLC such as this however is that if you add as much to the game as was there in the first place it almost makes more sense to just release another game. A lot of people had complaints when Left 4 Dead did this last year. I did not have a problem with how Valve released their newest game due to the fact I don't want to pay twice for the same game through DLC. I understand people's complaints but if you were to factor in the average price of skins, maps, game modes, etc... $60 may be a lot cheaper than if they had released Left 4 Dead 2 as DLC.

This leads me to the main point I was trying to make...micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are pretty much the same as DLC in a way. Most people run into micro-transactions when playing Facebook games, MMOs, and generally any online game site. I have paid for micro-transactions when I played on Gaia, and their transactions range from monthly limited outfits available no other way than real money to random items for any other aspect of the site. This leads me to my main complaint. I don't have a problem with people paying for DLC or micro-transactions to get items early. You can do this in WOW and almost all Facebook games. A lot of people complain that this lessons the game for other people but in all honesty not everyone has the time to put 100 hours into a game to get 1 piece of armor. It doesn't lesson the game for me any because for the most part I don't even notice if people have the items or not...just if I do. My problem comes from the developer making sure you can't get the items in game at all. Freerealms stands out to me as the most obvious of this. I will say the game is free to begin with so I can slightly understand why they do it. Freerealms is a free to play online casual MMO. It costs $5 a month to be a member and some items can only be accessed if you are a member. HOWEVER, even if you are a member the items still cost more real money. This means not only are you paying to play the game but you are also paying for all the items. There are certain items that can be obtained in the game that you can buy to have them early but a lot of the items in Freerealms aren't available in game at all. This means that calling it a free game is like calling Playstation Home a game. You can run around in Home but other than that most things cost money. This is how Freerealms is. I tried out the game to see how it was and almost immediately noticed I really couldn't do anything other than walk around. I'm sure there are people who are going to read this and say, well what do you expect for free? I understand this but it is just the point I am trying to prove. Make a product and charge me money for it. Don't bleed me dry and say if you want to be able to get everything in the game or if you want to be able to have the most fun you can have then you need to drop $5 here or $10 here. WOW may have micro-transactions but you have to look at the amount of free content they give through updates. Most game devs don't do this. A tweak here and there maybe but not the type of service you get from an MMO like WOW.

This has begun to be an issue. Go on Facebook and look at any of the games and realize how much people drop into these. It's great from a business aspect I have to admit but it shows no compassion whatsoever towards the consumer. As I said before if you could get the items in game without paying and just by sinking time into it or by purchasing early I think you have given some thought into how some people just can't afford all those transactions but you have also though on the business side. I'm just saying as a consumer I'm not made of money and it limits a lot of games I can enjoy. I played Mafia Wars, and Cafe World, and a few other Facebook games for a few months but in the end it just got to be ridiculous the amount of money I would have had to spend to enjoy myself any longer. They become games you can only play for an hour a day without paying for it. Once again I understand they are free to play but that still doesn't explain how Xanga made record amounts of money off their games. I'm sure if you break down all the earnings I guarantee that many people paid well over $60 in micro-transactions for just 1 game.

I'm aware gaming is an expensive hobby to have and that the companies put a lot of money into games and they need to profit as well but when it comes down to it a lot of the time it just looks like they are trying to take advantage of the consumer.

i'm not dead

I had a bit of a flood in my basement yesterday so that has kind of put the blog on hold for a couple days. I should have some new stuff up this weekend. Once again I apologize for not keeping a good schedule and I will try to get some stuff in place for that. Thanks again.

no update today

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today so there won't be an update. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel up to a couple. Thanks.

What's wrong with a dpad and some buttons?

While recently talking with my significant other we began conversing about motion controls for our games. As you already may know Microsoft has Natal, Nintendo has the Wii, and Sony has Move. We both had come to a conclusion...no more motion control. Nintendo, please stop doing this. Most of the people I know cannot stand motion control and would rather just use a regular controller. Microsoft and Sony, stop following suit. Just because Nintendo did it does not mean you have to. Nintendo makes money off of their well-known franchise games not the game's control. If you look into the history of the Wii can you not see the error in your ways...I have 2 words...RED STEEL.

I don't understand why people want more motion control in their games. I love fighting games but I can't play a Wii fighting game for more than 10 minutes without wearing myself out and I am only 24. There really is no reason other than bowling in your living room to warrant motion controls. Everything I have seen from Sony has been less than remarkable. Microsoft has shown shovel-ware and Nintendo has constantly upgraded a broken control scheme. I don't want to have to crouch in my house to simulate crouching in a game. That is completely inane and there is seriously no point behind it. Will it make money? Come on, Rock Revolution made money. Do you want to know why? Because grandparents and parents don't understand the difference between essential and complete money making garbage.

From a business stand point I can see the reason behind releasing these items but from a gamer's viewpoint there is no reason why I should have to flail my arm every time I see an enemy. I would rather press a button and not have lag, and I don't believe your 1 to 1 Sony, and I would also rather sit and press a directional pad to go into a direction and not have to actually walk. I'm sorry and I'm not saying I'm lazy, I mean after the housework and running errands you know, but I play video games to relax not to injure myself and my TV. That's about what I have to say about it. My rant isn't going to stop it but maybe if more people realize they aren't alone in preferring their controller then maybe someone will finally realize waggle should not exist.

I knew this day would come...

So I've finally decided to do it. I'm going to blog about Final Fantasy XIII. I have been a fan of this series ever since I can remember gaming. My favorites in the series are 5 and 7 and I also had some fun with Tactics. Now I am sure everyone out there has an understanding on the story of the game. If not it is not too different from any of the rest of the games in the series. A group of people are outcast and have to fight through hordes of bad guys to defeat the main bad guy and save the day. It's all pretty standard for the genre. I'm not really going to go into the story anymore or even most of the gameplay. Everything I could say has already been said more times than I can count. I'm just going to give my opinion as a fan of the series and what I think about the finished product.

I along with all the other Final Fantasy fans have been waiting on this game for about 4 years now. I picked my copy up at my local Gamestop during their midnight release and popped it in right when I got home and dropped about 5 hours in on my first run. Now let's say you are very used to a certain type of gameplay and when this has all been changed it can become a little frustrating trying to learn this new gameplay while also trying to understand a very intricate story and still trying to figure out why 2 of your characters are Australian and the rest seem to be American...wow. In all honesty I love this game. It looks great and once you learn everything with the battle system and upgrade systems it all flows together very nicely. There are a lot of issues in the game however and it does hurt the product overall. I am near 30 hours in and have not played in about 2 weeks because in all honesty it really hasn't hooked me in like previous games. Overall it is a good JRPG but I think it would have fit better in another series other than Final Fantasy. The linearity in my opinion doesn't hurt it, but then again I play Persona which tells you what you have to do for the most part. The grind doesn't feel the same because you aren't grinding levels as you are grinding items and points for your skills. It works, but not in the way most people would think. It comes off as tedious and the only thing I have heard is later on you can grind out while hunting large animals...which is odd and just doesn't par the course for a game known for addictive mini games and a large area of side quests. That isn't to say I don't like the weapon building component but it just takes so damn long and I am a gamer who likes to have all his ultimate weapons before he beats the game...not after.

Overall if you are a Final Fantasy fan you will enjoy the game just for the namesake. I do like this game but I don't think it stands anywhere near the perfection of some of the older games in the series. It plays well and tells a story. Will you like the story? More than likely you won't. Will you like the gameplay? That one is a better bet just due to the fact it isn't bad but as far as other games in the series go I would prefer they step back to the old systems. As far as Next-Gen JRPGs go however you could do much worse.

Overall - 8.7 out of 10

I just found the most helpful site

So I can't say that no one has heard of this site before. I actually heard Rob Corddry talking about it on Attack of the Show and I decided to give it a go. The site I am referring to is lifehacker.com. From nerd DIY to how to de-clutter your house one room at a time this site has damn near everything. I'm going to keep this blog brief due to the fact it is a little late here and I've got some more scanning to do through the blogs on lifehacker. However if you have a moment go ahead and check out the site and keep checking back as I should have some more items going up before the end of the week. Thanks again for reading.