A couple topics I may start discussing

So I have noticed a steady increase of traffic on the site and I just want to say thank you guys so much for reading. I started this blog just thinking maybe some close friends will read it and here I am at almost 200 hits a month. It's no Google but I'm proud of it.

I believe I am going to spread out a bit for topics and see how that goes. I know everyone isn't into video games and comics but I can't drop that due to that being the field I want to be in however I can add some topics that might appeal to some of the other people.

I have been playing Disc Golf for about 5 years now and I think that I may be able to come up with some things about that such as course reviews or disc reviews.

I also switched my main computer to a Macbook Pro so I can mess around with Mac items and mention some of those.

I also started back in college and I debated talking about classes but am not sure if anyone cares to read about that.

If any of these topics sound like a nice addition let me know. Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook or just leave me a comment down in the box. Thanks again guys and gals.

Playstation Move

So earlier today when I started planning out this blog I knew I was going to receive comments referring to me as a hypocrite due to my hatred of motion controls. I will explain why I decided to purchase Move and what differences there are in Move that I didn't feel were in the Wii.

I already own the camera so it shouldn't be that expensive right? This is what I was thinking before I went out and picked up Move. I was very very wrong in this assumption. There are a lot of parts to Move. You have your Move remote($50), your navigation remote($30), the Playstation Eye($30), and if you want the full experience you need an additional Move remote...and that doesn't include any games unless you have one of the few games already out that support Move. I am not interested in playing Resident Evil 5 with Move and I don't care and will never care about S.O.C.O.M so instantly I knew I didn't need the navigation remote as of right now. The only game out that I really wanted was Sports Champions($40), Sony's answer to Wii Sports. I only wanted Sports Champions due to Disc Golf being on it. I am an avid Disc Golf player in real life so there was no way I was missing out on a claimed 1 to 1 experience. Upon getting everything set up, the cord for the eye being the worst part, I realized I was going to need to move some things around the room. Move doesn't work the same way as the Wii. The Wii follows the Wiimote similar to a laser pointer. Move follows the light on the top on the controller and the camera to map out where your body is. It will actually follow you if you move towards or away from the camera. I have been told Wii Motion Plus does something similar to this but more along the lines of how an Ipod knows which way you are holding it.

Sports Champions comes with 6 games: Bocce, Disc Golf, Archery, Gladiator, Beach Volleyball, and Table Tennis. Beach Volleyball is not at all fun in my opinion so I won't mention it at all. Archery does really work and it is kind of neat using 2 remotes to simulate pulling an arrow out of your quiver. Gladiator I have not had any issues with and I find it fun in small doses. Table tennis I had the most issues with due to limited room to play. You actually have to move everywhere in this one. Bocce and Disc Golf are by far my favorites on the game and I would buy full fledged versions of these games if they decided to make them. Bocce is very similar to a bigger game of marbles. The goal is to throw out a small ball and then get larger balls as close to the small one as possible. It is very fun with the motion controls. Disc Golf...aka...the only reason I wanted any of this, has met all of my expectations. The controls are almost spot on with real life and I only had issues with fore-hand throws. The courses on all the games are fairly limited so hopefully we will have some DLC courses.

Overall the game plays well for the most part. The characters are bland and unimaginative and a create your own would have worked well. I can't let this bring the game down because to be honest I don't like any of the 3 systems avatar systems. They are all kind of creepy and I promise all 3 systems sports games will feature art similar to their avatars. As far as a launch titles goes it is decent enough and shows off the hardware well.

As far as motion controls go I hate the Wii due to it not working correctly and a lot of people have told me motion plus fixes that but to me the Move tech and Wii tech are different. The Wii is a glorified pointer while Move uses the camera to map where you are. I can understand people hating Sony for "imitating" Nintendo but they didn't just copy the tech. They changed and improved on the idea of motion controls. Neither of them are perfect by any means but I see progress in Move. I got it because to me it's progress. It isn't a knockoff.

As far as other games go that are either compatible or came out I have tried a few. The girl and I tried out Eyepet and she seemed to enjoy it but I got bored after about 35 seconds. We also tried the building game Tumble and had some fun with the demo. Tumble may be worth the $10 price tag. Hustle Kings, from one of my first reviews on the blog, got a compatibility patch and can now be played with Move. It does work but I would much rather use the controller for it. High Velocity Bowling is another game that got a patch but as of right now it is a Playstation Plus exclusive.

Overall I am happy with my purchase. As of right now there isn't a whole lot out there for anyone but families and tech nerds but the tech works well and I do think that once they start supporting it it will do well. Sorcery is one game I can think of that seems to be doing what needs to be done with motion games.

So....

So I picked up Playstation Move and have been playing with that for a little bit now and I will have that review up sometime this week and I will see if I can try out any other games for it besides Sports Champion. Couldn't get the podcast up this week due to scheduling conflicts but hopefully soon. Thanks again.

Bring Me the Horizon

So I'm sitting here smoking a cigarette listening to Bring Me the Horizon on my Ipod and I feel at peace. I don't know how many other people get that feeling listening to incredibly violent metal but different strokes right?

Bring Me the Horizon are a British metalcore band. Metalcore standing for a combination of metal and hardcore music. This tends to have to do with the time signature and also with how they tune their instruments. One of my friends showed me the band and I have been amazed ever since. The band so far has 3 full length albums and 1 EP. I have mostly listened to their 2nd full length CD, Suicide Season. On a quick side-note there is a remix album of Suicide Season. The CD is absolutely brutal lyrically and instrumentally. Some stand out tracks for me on this album include; Chelsea Smile, Football Season is Over, and Sleep With One Eye Open.

The music is hard to explain so I guess I will try to combine other bands to do that. They have the synth of Underoath and the vocals come off somewhere between Glassjaw, The Acacia Strain, and newer Underoath. Even that doesn't do it much justice. They have call out vocals harkening back to older hardcore bands. They also mix in some electronic elements similar to Drop Dead, Gorgeous or The Devil Wears Prada. It is a very eclectic sound but completely unique.

 I haven't gone much into their older album and have been meaning to make time to do that along with getting ready for the new CD. If you are into metal at all you have to check out Bring Me the Horizon. The lyrics are some of the best metal lyrics I have heard lately and just the overall energy and emotion put into some of the songs is astounding. Check this out.

Update tomorrow

I will have a band review up tomorrow on Bring Me the Horizon...nifty little band from Britain. Also I should be getting the podcast started up this week with hopefully a trial run towards the end of the week and hopefully try and get some other blogs written up time willing. Thanks as always guys and hang in there while I get my schedule fixed up...almost on track.

Stephanie Holmes Hometown Comedy Show

I have a little side note before I get into this blog. At this show last night I ran into a lot of high school friends and such and 1 in particular I would like to thank. As I was leaving she told me she keeps up with the blog but she doesn't much get into games but she likes it and this made me feel so great about the blog and it makes me want to keep up a bit more. So you know who you are and thank you.

So I have been spamming that I went to this since last night so I figured I should elaborate on the experience. Background info - Stephanie and I went to high school together and I have known her for years. She was always the funny theater girl who had big ambitions. I hadn't seen her in years due to her moving to New York out of high school. I got an invite on Facebook a few weeks ago letting me know she would be back in our hometown to do a free comedy show. I had no idea what she had been up to for all this time and it was great to see she was doing what she wanted to after all these years.

She was described to me as such; classier than Sarah Silverman and she gets paid to write dick jokes. All right I thought...high school. In all honesty though I was very impressed. She has amazing timing on all her jokes and she has the ability to take the joke down to the point that everyone has become uncomfortable except 3 people in the room. This to me is the ability of a great comedian. To be able to go from a full room  of laughter down to a joke so extreme that the audience knows it's funny but is uncomfortable about laughing. George Carlin was able to do this and lately I have seen Daniel Tosh do this.

She was very versatile in her material making everyone in the room feel a part of the joke. Ranging from jokes about poop to funny stories of high school. A few political jokes sprinkled in for good measure and I have to say it would fit on any Comedy Central Presents. I came home after the show and went to Youtube to see if she had any videos and I was surprised to see a couple music videos and some live stand up. I am not going to just say support her because I went to school with her...I'm going to say support her because she deserves it. It is obvious she takes a lot of time to work on her material and she cares very much about her craft. If she comes near you support her. I will link her Youtube at the bottom of this page and if you have some extra time check her videos out. Forewarning they do contain adult material.

SHolmesComedy - Youtube

Monster Rancher DS Review

So I picked up Monster Rancher DS not too long ago in an attempt to relive some of my childhood gaming habits. The basic setup has not changed over the years and only a few things have actually been updated for the newer system. In the original for the Playstation you had to swap out different CDs to obtain monsters and it was a very unique idea and had me scrambling for every CD in the house. This time around they are playing to the strengths of the DS and allow you to either say a word or phrase or you can draw a picture onto a grid to obtain a monster. I really enjoy this and spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what monsters I could get.

You can store up to 30 monsters in a "cryo" chamber and for the first part of playing I did nothing but draw pictures and store the monsters I wanted. After creating your monster you can take it back to your ranch. The ranch is made up of a stable for your creature and a house. You can upgrade 1 of these every year. The larger the stable you have determines the size of monsters you can have. The larger the house you have determines how many items you can have. From there you can train your monster through different tasks that will raise it's stats. You also later on in the game can take your monster to a location and train it's stats up much more than usual. This will cost a good chunk of money but also will save you lots of time. These area's are set up like a board game and can raise stats, lower stats, generate a random wild monster, and raise and lower the amount of rolls you have. There are also areas that you can search with your monster but I never got into these so I don't have much to say on them.

Once you train up your monsters you can take it to battle. You can only battle in the level you are in starting at D and working your way up. I prefer to train my monster up a lot before I enter these so that I can have the monster make it's own moves and I can just watch the battle. I have yet to finish the game and I don't think I have ever finished a Monster Rancher game. I like to just do the everyday training and see what all monsters I can get. I like to look at these games as a less in depth Pokemon. You get your monster, raise it's stats, and battle in tournaments. There are no RPG elements beyond that. You don't have to walk around and there aren't any random battles. In this way I think it is more accessible.

Based on what I have played so far and the amount of enjoyment and nostalgia I can honestly say the games hasn't needed to change much to still be fun. I'm giving this one a...

9 out of 10