Demo Reviews

So I sat down and went through all the new demo releases on the Playstation Network. I ended up getting the Modnation Racers Demo, the Split/Second Demo, and the Rocket Knight Demo. I will go in order of playing.

The Modnation Racers demo has gotten me excited about the game. The mouth customization alone has over 300 different unlockables which is unheard of. The racing itself is a little different than the standard kart racer. You have a little more to remember than you standard 3. In the game you use X to drift, O to use your shield, (square) to use your weapons, R2 to accelerate, L2 to brake, and L1 to boost. Other than that it is pretty standard fair for kart racing. The racing is a little more difficult than most racers and even on the normal setting I found myself getting left behind. However, I will say that this game is on my radar and should be on yours as well.

Split/Second is a game by Black Rock studios which is owned by Disney. Not an awful way to start but not the best. However they know racing games. They were the team behind the ATV game Pure. I was a big fan of that game so I was excited when Split/Second was announced. After playing the demo I think this one may be just a rent and beat. The racing is fun and fast and the explosions are fun and neat to trigger but as I have heard there is a limited number of tracks and for the second half of the game it is all rehashed tracks. Also the explosions are all in the same areas so upon learning the track it becomes easy to avoid them. Still a fun game but for me probably just a rent.

Last but not least is Rocket Knight. It appears to me to be a game about a jet-packing wielding armadillo. I can't say I have played the original because I do believe this is a remake. However after playing the first level through I am very impressed. The combat is top notch and varied and the 2-d platforming is really done very well. I believe this game to be a DLG (download-able
game). I will be very much keeping an eye on this one.

To everyone out there with money trouble, and I know that's a lot of people, don't let it get you down. Get some free demos and at least get a few free hours of gameplay in. Thanks for reading.

Red Dead Redemption

So I have been putting some time into Red Dead Redemption recently. I picked up the game on a 5 day rental and have probably put about 30 hrs in thus far. I can say that a lot about the game impresses me but overall there are some significant errors that made it in that kind of hinder the game-play.

I started the game playing the single player mode and for awhile I was getting into the game and having a lot of fun. I was running missions here and there but overall I was riding around hunting trying to get all the in game challenges complete. This was all find and dandy until I decided to move the story along and play some missions. The mission structure in this game comes off as broken. A lot of it plays off as a ride to cut scene mission. You go to your mission start point and ride to another cut scene which explains the mission. It would make more sense to take me where I need to go and not waste a load of time having idle chit chat while I ride to my missions. To top all that off I had a lot of problems learning how to do what should have been easy items to take care of. The horse breaking was a large amount of trouble for me. I don't know if I just don't get horses but the explanation for how to do it never really helped me accomplish the goal.

Everyone knows about the random programming glitches so I won't waste time on talking about them as all you have to do is go here-> youtube to find some of those videos.

I have spent the most time in the game playing the online multiplayer. I have had the most fun with these modes and could see getting the game based on this alone. I haven't played with the free roam or the posse options as I don't use my headset and this seems like it would almost require it. I have however played the gang matches and the free-for-all matches and found them to be very satisfying. The levels are all your standard gameplay types such as Gold Rush which plays like a standard capture-the-flag match, and Shoot Out which is your standard deathmatch or team deathmatch. These were the match types I played most of the time.

As you put more time into the game you earn XP which is used solely in the multiplayer mode to unlock weapons, titles, mounts, characters, challenges, etc. This may be the main reason that the multiplayer comes off as more fun than the single player. I was grinding about 15 levels a day just to unlock more items and it's this feature that I believe will keep the audience coming back. I did have some issues with connections and at certain times it became a pain. I have been dropped from matches with only 15 seconds to go in the match and I was winning to boot.

The main problem with this game is it runs on an engine that is glitchy to begin with. Instead of fine tuning the engine they just re-skinned it and packaged it. Red Dead Redemption had a lot of potential but I feel it squandered it and they just pushed the game through as fast as they could. The game isn't broken but at times it does feel like it isn't too far off.

7.6 out of 10

Quotes to live with...or by...whichever

So I'm starting a new piece. Quotes that throughout the years I have heard and enjoyed. Quotes that have helped me or helped me see another side of life. I'll put up 4 or 5 at a time that way I don't blow through all I have at the moment. So here goes.


"If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing." Margaret Thatcher

"It is not true that life is one damn thing after another. It's one damn thing over and over." Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you." Annie Dillard

"Life is like a B-grade movie. You don't want to leave in the middle of it, but you don't want to see it again." Ted Turner

"I'm a mess and you're a mess, too. Everyone's a mess. Which means, actually, that no one's a mess." Fionna Apple


How was that...hopefully you all liked it and I will put more up later on. Thanks for reading.

Skate 3 Review

So I will start this review by saying that I never much got into the first Skate game. I did own it after losing all hope in the Tony Hawk franchise. I just think that early adopters of the game kinda got screwed. The game was by no means bad and it looked and played well but the difficulty factor on a brand new control scheme can be devastating and it drove me away. I skipped Skate 2 and had no qualms with not playing it. I however as of late have kept seeing commercials for Skate 3. I didn't have the money to go out and drop $60 but I waited and found my local game rental store to check it out.

When turning on the game my first impressions is that the game looks great. I am not sure how much of a difference there is between all the games but I can say I love the look of this one. Overall the general feel and the customization open up for a lot of cool things you can do. I can however say that the story is completely pointless in almost every way. I found myself skipping all the story sections just to complete tasks to get board sales. I'm not saying this is bad because some people who love skating and skaters will sit through these. I on the other hand skated when I was young but was never good, but still really loved skating games.

The reason I loved the old Tony Hawk games was the freedom to just skate. You could do whatever you wanted at any time. The first Skate had this feature but due to the learning curve it never felt the same. I have heard that in Skate 2 the off-board controls were awful but I can say that this has been addressed from what I have heard it was. This makes getting off the board and running to start a line easy as hell along with the line markers you can drop. The game has gotten free skate down finally and I couldn't be happier. I had to take the game back today with about 80% complete and I can say when I have the cash I will definitely get this one if for nothing more than to randomly drop in and skate the amazing locales in the game.

This brings me to my last set of points. Due to my renting of the game I was not allowed to participate in the online factor of the game without paying an extra $10 to access it. I understand new copies of the game come with a code for this and this is to try and hurt used sales and generate new ones. I don't agree with this but I understand to an extent why but in the long run that will make me have to wait to get the game longer due to cash constraints. My only other complaint with the game is the soundtrack. I understand there are a lot of licensed tracks but come on people...make it so we can do custom soundtracks. I would love to pull up music on my PS3 and skate to what I want. Other than that and a few other minor complaints I would recommend this game if you like skating or skating games but be warned while they have made the game a little easier...it is only a little easier.

Skate 3 - 8.7 out of 10

My apologies

To the people who do tend to check regularly on the site I would like to apologize for my infrequency this week. I have had a minor emergency but have hopefully gotten most of it under control. I of this writing have about 4 new blogs written and they will be spaced so hopefully if anything like this happens again I can make sure I can keep the site up to date. So, thank you for your patience and thank you for reading.

CANDY!!!!

So everyone who knows me or meets me knows that I love candy above most other things. Butterfingers, Twix, Nerds, and anything sour. Every time I have extra money and am at a gas station, grocery store, or candy store I have to get everything I can. I can go through giant bags in an evening. I regularly take home 2 lb. bags of Sour Patch Kids from the store and destroy them in hours. What I'm trying to say is...I LOVE CANDY.

Now you may be asking, "Why are you telling me this?" I'm telling you this because just today a thought crossed my mind as I was going through a bag of candy my girlfriend's mother sent home for me. How the fuck are fun size...fun? If I were to make something fun sized it would be enormous. I want to be able to have fun with it. Remember in the film Half Baked; the giant Abba Zaba? That is fun size. When it takes some muscle to carry the thing...that is what fun size should be.

I don't want to have to eat 34 fun size Twix to not be hungry. I want 1 34 lb. Twix. That is the kind of logic that I am using on this. It has nothing to do with being healthy. I can walk off a 34 lb. Twix. It isn't hard. So come on people...rally behind the bigger better fun size. Halloween would never be the same again.

Flashbacks

So I'm sitting here smoking a cigarette and drinking a Red Bull and I think it's about time for a new blog.

So recently I have gone back and pulled some CDs out that I had as a kid. When I say kid I mean around 13-14 years old...about a decade ago. Most of the CDs were from the late 90's early 00's. I pulled them back out after hearing some of the people I work with talking about bands they like and I heard some old favorites.

In my early years I listened to a lot of ska. I pulled out Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Mad Caddies, and even a local band from Indiana; Skavossas. First off these CDs have held up very well over the years. Not physically, but they are still great albums to listen to. I am very pleased to say they have now been put on my MP3 player so that I can take them with me.

Reel Big Fish was actually the very first concert I ever went to see, which may have had something to do with the amount of ska I used to listen to. I went back and checked out Why Do They Rock So Hard? and Turn the Radio Off and I was surprised to still know all the words. Less Than Jake I got Anthem and Hello Rockview and they are still amazing and I am currently listening to them as I write this post.

Needless to say go back and check out some of the old bands you used to listen to. I am very happy to have found all this old music. Current music isn't always the best and it is always nice to recognize how some of those old favorites made it possible to have the music you have today. You may not even know it but they will bring back great memories and isn't that why we listen to music in the first place.

GLAD I'M AN 80'S BABY!!!

So first off I would like to apologize for my lateness in blogging. I had been sick for the past week and couldn't do a whole lot of anything. I however am back and kicking...for the most part and it's time for a blog.

So recently I have been on a movie kick...thus the lack of game playing. I have so far worked my way through half the Harry Potter movies and am finishing up watching...in all honesty for the first time...the Die Hard Quadrilogy. I have never been a huge fan of action movies and I tend to enjoy the occasional torture porn...such as Ichi the Killer or Hostel. However in watching the Die Hard films and lately watching a couple other action based movies it has come to my attention...I LOVE ACTION MOVIES. I will specify however that action movies based in the 90's are far better than anything nowadays. The first 3 Die Hard movies are far better than the newer one. Everything about earlier cinema has already far surpassed anything anyone could come up with now. I do not hate current movies. This is far from how I feel. I do think however that movies in the 80's and 90's are far more personal and have a lot more heart to them. They aren't all CGI and even though puppets seem to be cheesy I would still take the old Henson turtles over the new CGI turtles any day of the week.










I can say that fantasy movies in my opinion have picked up a bit in the 00's as Harry Potter can point out. I am 24 years of age and I still fall into that fantasy world every time I turn on any of those movies. The movies do use a lot of CGI but it is very well blended into the background and doesn't tend to pull away because of the world you are supposed to be experiencing. This is far different from the crap movies are doing currently with 3-D and all those other gimmicks.

This brings me to my point. If you have a good story and good action you shouldn't have to fuck it up by filling the screen with CGI monkeys and inner dimensional creatures...yeah Indiana Jones...I went there. Fantasy movies can use it due to they are creating a new world. However the next time I watch an action movie and I see massive CGI I will walk out and flame the fuck out of the film. Michael Bay...stop. No more shitty Transformers wannabes.

A little update

So I haven't made it past chapter 4 yet in Yakuza 3. There is a reason for this however. The staggering amount of side quests and items to find. I also spent a bunch of time taking girls out on dates in-game. To date just in the one section I am in I have run 24 side quests. I also have been collecting locker keys of which there are 50 in each of the 2 main regions. Once these are found you can open the lockers and get items. Some of the items are recovery items while others are used to mod weapons.

The mod weapons mini-games are neat to do. What happens is you find a schematic or a movie detailing a specific weapon and an NPC in the game will make the weapon for you if you acquire all the necessary parts to build it. Other than that I have been trying to max my character out in every aspect. I haven't made it to the strip clubs in game yet as they are in the new section and I have seen hostess club but due to playing the US version I can't go in the hostess club. I don't think it takes away too much from the game but it is kind of sad that they left it in the game and it is on your map...but you can't go in.

So far I am very very pleased with the game. I can't say the purchase as I rented the game and due to having only 5 days I am attempting to tear through it as quickly as possible without missing too much. I want to have as much as possible by the time I have to take it back. I have till Sunday...wish me luck. I will also keep updating, possibly daily through the week if I get play time in.

First Impressions: Yakuza 3

So before I get back to playing I think I will say a couple words about Yakuza 3. This game is amazing. It does have a few issues here and there but overall there is a lot in this package. For those who don't know this game is a continuation of the Yakuza series from the PS2. Essentially a Yakuza crime drama in video game form. However in this game you start out as Kazuma Kiryu who is the former 4th Chairman of one of the Yakuza families. In the beginning of the game you see that he has retired from his old life and has taken into his care an orphanage and 8 orphans. This is where the story really pulls at the heart. It does a good job at it however and some of the scenes are trying to get the tears flowing. From this point you see one of the other Yakuza bosses murdered and it seems you may have to enter back into the fray. This is as far as I am at the moment and I don't want to ruins any sub-plots for anyone who may want to play the game.

The game-play is sandbox style but it has a few more limitations than most standard sandbox games do. You cannot jump and are limited where you can run and the game makes sure you know this. This doesn't hinder the game as it is still very large and the pure amount of things to do is astounding. I haven't made it too far in just now making it part way into chapter 4. I can say that I love all the mini games and things to do and my only complaint is there is no real easy way to mark these places than by going to them. This also becomes an issue when not everything is open at night or during the day making a large part of the game trial and error. While none of these are deal breakers I just wanted to get that out there.

The fighting game-play in Yakuza is amazing. The controls, while very simple, can be chained to do some pretty neat combos along with a lot of cool weapon based finishers. As you upgrade your character you can also put more experience towards one technique if you like how they work, similar to a skill tree. Another neat thing about Yakuza is the pure amount of things to collect. It is very reminiscent of Shenmue and Badass Rumble in that aspect. The collecting alone in the Sega Arcade could eat up hours of playtime to get every item and the in-game games in the arcade are fun as well.

The last thing I want to mention is the fact that all the audio in the game is Japanese. They haven't dubbed any of the voices over and it makes for a very clean feel to the game. You honestly get pulled in more because there isn't a shitty dub done where the lips are off on the words. Everything flows very well and it all feels like it is supposed to be together. The game, overall in this still early stage I am at is already proving to me that the 4th game needs to come stateside and it's proving how good Sega is at telling a story. No score at this time as I want to get more into the game but keep an eye out later this week for updates.

BONE-THUGS-N-HARMONY - CD Review - Uni5 The World's Enemy

So I have been waiting for this for sometime. I was talking to my friend the other day and his cousin is Wishbone from Bone-Thugs...I shit you not...and I asked him when would we see a new album. His response made me want to cry...not for awhile Flesh-N-Bone got another felony charge. Not 3 days later I am sitting up at about 4:45 AM and what do I see on TV...Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony...Rebirth. 7 minutes later I see the album title...Uni5 The World's Enemy...a new album due out May 4th. Needless to say I found the tracks and have been listening to them all day...here is my review.

From the moment you start this album you can instantly tell who it is. It is all 5 original members and it sounds amazing. The album starts with an intro then into song 2: Rebirth. This is the first song I heard on the album and it left an imprint. I have had it stuck in my head all day and I have listened to it about 6 times and it has yet to get old. It is everything you remember and more. They haven't slowed down in the slightest and it is easy to get lost in the fast flow when Bizzy-Bone goes into any of his verses.

Everyone is in top shape and sounds just like they did on earlier releases. All production has taken to a lot of the newer sounds used in current production. It doesn't have the old school hip-hop feel you would usually associate with Bone Thugs or early Snoop, Dre, etc. I do like how they work with it though and they don't sound out of place at all. The songs due all tend to be on the long side with Rebirth topping out at almost 8 minutes in length. I don't think this detracts too much for me but I have heard people who say this turns them away.

The songs have shifted away from being as violent as earlier releases due to a few of the members religious beliefs. This however does not detract from the overall ferocity of some of the lines on the album. There is still a lot of marijuana talk on the album which is as to be expected. Once again the album is made up of pot anthems, ballads, and songs of personal growth. From beginning to end this album is Bone Thugs. The album is everything I could have hoped for. If you like Bone Thugs, love them, or are just looking for a new great hip-hop album, check this out. Pick it up on May 4th...I know I will be getting it.

9.7 out of 10