Saturday, May 03, 2008
-Hey yo! I am ecstatic as I type this, because in a couple short weeks, this semester will be finished. Similar to last semester it flew right by! One more year left of having no life, huzzah!
-After starting it last fall, and playing it sporadically while on the road or during whatever free time I had "on-the-go," I am nearly done with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the DS. A couple days ago I completed the fourth case, saw the credits role after the hilarious aftermath of the fourth case, and was surprised to see a bonus fifth case be available to play. I consider this a milestone for me personally. Other than previous review code, Phoenix Wright will end up being the first handheld game I have completed in quite some time. I want to say the last handheld games I completed was Super Dodge Ball Advance's career/tour mode...does that even count? I did get the sequel to Phoenix Wright, And Justice for All, in the mail last week from Amazon ($15 new!). However I think I'll take a break before starting up the sequel and finally get around to starting Hotel Dusk. That is another DS game that has been waiting to be played for ages, and after hearing all the rave reviews I cannot wait to get to it.
-Last weekend I went with Chris to see Harold & Kumar 2. Admittedly, I wasn't going in with high expectations. I kept thinking there was no way they could come close to the greatness of the first one, but I was proven wrong. I won't say the sequel was as good as the original, but it was pretty damn close, if not on the same level. The whole theater was in a riot throughout the flick. Highlight of the film for me had to be the state border line/unicorn scene with Neil Patrick Harris. Absolute gold! The people behind this also pushed the R rating to its limits, I can't imaging what the probable Unrated DVD has in store.
-So a little game called Grand Theft Auto IV hit stores last week, ever hear of it? I only put a few hours in so far. To get psyched up for the release, a few days prior to IV's launch I popped in San Andreas and picked up where I left off. I forgot that I got stuck early on that stupid forklift mission, which unfortunately led to the game going to my backlog. After a few more tries, I managed to vanquish that forklift mission, along with a couple more. I forgot how much I was into San Andreas's story. Game still held up for the most part, though the aimining/targeting was considerably far worse than I previously recalled. Too bad I probably won't get around to putting a lot more time into it now that I have IV.
Here are my early thoughts of IV. The cut scenes boast some superb production. The first hour of the game nearly felt like an interactive movie, there were only some small interactions inbetween cut scenes as I watched the story of Nikko unfold. I was a little surprised it didn't hit me until a couple hours into the game that I thought "hey, I didn't fire a gun yet!" Thank you Rockstar for borrowing Saints Row's GPS navigation. Aiming is a lot easier, I turned off auto-targeting after getting use to playing Saints Row without it, and the free aim works spades better than San Andreas. Mini-games are ok, I played some pool and bowling. I think bowling will take some getting use to, but pool was relatively intuitive. So far the only thing I do have an issue with is the new hand-to-hand melee system. It seems to take noticeably longer to beat the crap out of thugs. The new lock-on, punch/dodge/counter system just seems to be a bit much compared to older GTAs where I walked up and pounded the crap out of someone. Maybe I'll adapt to it, but for now I dread hand-to-hand encounters.
I passed on the special edition after a lot of thought. The casing looked cool. The only other thing I remember the special edition contained was a duffel bag. I looked at the case in stores to see what else was inside, but the marketing geniuses at Rockstar must have thought that they wanted to keep the consumer guessing what was inside since they don't label the S.E. contents on the packaging anywhere, so I got the regular edition instead. No duffel bag is worth an extra $30 to me....unless Hulk Hogan's on it. I shouldn't be, but I am a little surprised at how much non-gamers have taken notice of IV. Several coworkers I know not to be avid gamers already asked me how I'm liking the game so far. One brief exchange went, "So Dale how many hookers have you killed so far?" To which I promptly responded "243."
-A few weeks ago Lost and The Office started airing new episodes again now that the blasted writer's strike is over. I want to give major props to ABC.com and hulu.com for the very user-friendly web-viewing experience. They only have one 15-30 second commercial wherever a regular tv commercial break would occur, and the connection is remarkably smooth. I'm caught up with all The Office's new episodes now, and I'm never disappointed. Stanley freaking out on Michael was priceless. It seemed like he had that coming from the very beginning. Michael & Dwight clubbing with Ryan and his hobbit also were some fun times. I still need to get around to watching the BBC shows I've had DVD for awhile, I guess I just dread hearing those British accents.
The two new episodes of Lost so far managed not to piss me off, well, actually the first one kind of did. SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!! I was surprised they killed off Alex so point-black in front of Ben, usually there's a lot more crazy hijynx leading up to deaths on Lost, but that one caught me off guard. First episode also surprised me that Ben has the ability to call the Black Smoke on his command. And the flash forward that episode left me to speculate if Ben has the ability to time travel. I know, it sounds weird, but c'mon, it's Lost. Ben just looked like he landed in the desert out of the sky, and was wearing way too many layers of clothing for being in the desert, to top it off he looked unsure what year it was when checking in at the hotel.
This week's episode seemed more filler than anything. The only worthwhile thing I got of that episode was that it looked Jack's dad, or an illusion of him led Claire out of the jungle (while talking about this episode at work, I completely forgot about that flashback that revealed Claire and Jack as siblings with Claire being Jack's Dad's abandoned child). Also, I was also surprised to see the mercenaries survived the Black Smoke attack when it appeared the smoke was kicking their ass in the first episode. Seemed some of these flash-forwards are taking place way too ahead in the future. It looked like Aaron was three or four years old in this one. It is going to be interesting to see the direction the show takes when/if they ever get off the island in present time.
-Now I stated above that I haven't even started my BBC Office DVDs yet, but that doesn't mean I have been making a little bit of progress through my other TV DVDs. This past weekend I finished Season One of my Human Giant and Extras DVDs. I still got to watch the extras on Human Giant though which consist of a ton of unaired skits and improv. Human Giant is simply amazing. Definitely not for everyone, but their kind of humor is right up my alley, and reminds me of a lot of ideas and crap Matt and I use to come up with. Extras was pretty good too, I got use to the British accents and slang faster than I anticipated. First few episodes were good, but almost seemed a little too much like Seinfeld focusing a bit much on how the main characters keep screwing up. Last couple episodes started to go in a better direction, and I am digging the guest stars they have on each episode. I never knew that Patrick Stewart was such a perv.
-It seems that it has been a while since I discussed wrestling on here, so let's get up to speed. I had a Backlash PPV party last Sunday. Paul, Dick, and Dave made it over. All right PPV, though now it seems pretty forgettable other than Triple H winning the belt, and Foley replacing Coach as commentator on Smackdown. Kind of hard to believe he went over three years without being the champ. Another reason why Backlash seems forgettable right now is because of the crazy week of wrestling that WWE had. First on RAW, they have a crazy finish I haven't seen in years where they cut off the show before the end of a match. Then on ECW, Tazz & Mike Adamle leave the broadcast booth right before the main event for whatever reason. Finally on Smackdown, Undertaker is stripped of the belt because Vickie doesn't like his submission hold that he has been using for several months now. There were several other little things too, but it all culminated for a weird, yet intriguing week of pro wrestling.
-That's about all I got for now, until next time!
-After starting it last fall, and playing it sporadically while on the road or during whatever free time I had "on-the-go," I am nearly done with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the DS. A couple days ago I completed the fourth case, saw the credits role after the hilarious aftermath of the fourth case, and was surprised to see a bonus fifth case be available to play. I consider this a milestone for me personally. Other than previous review code, Phoenix Wright will end up being the first handheld game I have completed in quite some time. I want to say the last handheld games I completed was Super Dodge Ball Advance's career/tour mode...does that even count? I did get the sequel to Phoenix Wright, And Justice for All, in the mail last week from Amazon ($15 new!). However I think I'll take a break before starting up the sequel and finally get around to starting Hotel Dusk. That is another DS game that has been waiting to be played for ages, and after hearing all the rave reviews I cannot wait to get to it.
-Last weekend I went with Chris to see Harold & Kumar 2. Admittedly, I wasn't going in with high expectations. I kept thinking there was no way they could come close to the greatness of the first one, but I was proven wrong. I won't say the sequel was as good as the original, but it was pretty damn close, if not on the same level. The whole theater was in a riot throughout the flick. Highlight of the film for me had to be the state border line/unicorn scene with Neil Patrick Harris. Absolute gold! The people behind this also pushed the R rating to its limits, I can't imaging what the probable Unrated DVD has in store.
-So a little game called Grand Theft Auto IV hit stores last week, ever hear of it? I only put a few hours in so far. To get psyched up for the release, a few days prior to IV's launch I popped in San Andreas and picked up where I left off. I forgot that I got stuck early on that stupid forklift mission, which unfortunately led to the game going to my backlog. After a few more tries, I managed to vanquish that forklift mission, along with a couple more. I forgot how much I was into San Andreas's story. Game still held up for the most part, though the aimining/targeting was considerably far worse than I previously recalled. Too bad I probably won't get around to putting a lot more time into it now that I have IV.
Here are my early thoughts of IV. The cut scenes boast some superb production. The first hour of the game nearly felt like an interactive movie, there were only some small interactions inbetween cut scenes as I watched the story of Nikko unfold. I was a little surprised it didn't hit me until a couple hours into the game that I thought "hey, I didn't fire a gun yet!" Thank you Rockstar for borrowing Saints Row's GPS navigation. Aiming is a lot easier, I turned off auto-targeting after getting use to playing Saints Row without it, and the free aim works spades better than San Andreas. Mini-games are ok, I played some pool and bowling. I think bowling will take some getting use to, but pool was relatively intuitive. So far the only thing I do have an issue with is the new hand-to-hand melee system. It seems to take noticeably longer to beat the crap out of thugs. The new lock-on, punch/dodge/counter system just seems to be a bit much compared to older GTAs where I walked up and pounded the crap out of someone. Maybe I'll adapt to it, but for now I dread hand-to-hand encounters.
I passed on the special edition after a lot of thought. The casing looked cool. The only other thing I remember the special edition contained was a duffel bag. I looked at the case in stores to see what else was inside, but the marketing geniuses at Rockstar must have thought that they wanted to keep the consumer guessing what was inside since they don't label the S.E. contents on the packaging anywhere, so I got the regular edition instead. No duffel bag is worth an extra $30 to me....unless Hulk Hogan's on it. I shouldn't be, but I am a little surprised at how much non-gamers have taken notice of IV. Several coworkers I know not to be avid gamers already asked me how I'm liking the game so far. One brief exchange went, "So Dale how many hookers have you killed so far?" To which I promptly responded "243."
-A few weeks ago Lost and The Office started airing new episodes again now that the blasted writer's strike is over. I want to give major props to ABC.com and hulu.com for the very user-friendly web-viewing experience. They only have one 15-30 second commercial wherever a regular tv commercial break would occur, and the connection is remarkably smooth. I'm caught up with all The Office's new episodes now, and I'm never disappointed. Stanley freaking out on Michael was priceless. It seemed like he had that coming from the very beginning. Michael & Dwight clubbing with Ryan and his hobbit also were some fun times. I still need to get around to watching the BBC shows I've had DVD for awhile, I guess I just dread hearing those British accents.
The two new episodes of Lost so far managed not to piss me off, well, actually the first one kind of did. SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!! I was surprised they killed off Alex so point-black in front of Ben, usually there's a lot more crazy hijynx leading up to deaths on Lost, but that one caught me off guard. First episode also surprised me that Ben has the ability to call the Black Smoke on his command. And the flash forward that episode left me to speculate if Ben has the ability to time travel. I know, it sounds weird, but c'mon, it's Lost. Ben just looked like he landed in the desert out of the sky, and was wearing way too many layers of clothing for being in the desert, to top it off he looked unsure what year it was when checking in at the hotel.
This week's episode seemed more filler than anything. The only worthwhile thing I got of that episode was that it looked Jack's dad, or an illusion of him led Claire out of the jungle (while talking about this episode at work, I completely forgot about that flashback that revealed Claire and Jack as siblings with Claire being Jack's Dad's abandoned child). Also, I was also surprised to see the mercenaries survived the Black Smoke attack when it appeared the smoke was kicking their ass in the first episode. Seemed some of these flash-forwards are taking place way too ahead in the future. It looked like Aaron was three or four years old in this one. It is going to be interesting to see the direction the show takes when/if they ever get off the island in present time.
-Now I stated above that I haven't even started my BBC Office DVDs yet, but that doesn't mean I have been making a little bit of progress through my other TV DVDs. This past weekend I finished Season One of my Human Giant and Extras DVDs. I still got to watch the extras on Human Giant though which consist of a ton of unaired skits and improv. Human Giant is simply amazing. Definitely not for everyone, but their kind of humor is right up my alley, and reminds me of a lot of ideas and crap Matt and I use to come up with. Extras was pretty good too, I got use to the British accents and slang faster than I anticipated. First few episodes were good, but almost seemed a little too much like Seinfeld focusing a bit much on how the main characters keep screwing up. Last couple episodes started to go in a better direction, and I am digging the guest stars they have on each episode. I never knew that Patrick Stewart was such a perv.
-It seems that it has been a while since I discussed wrestling on here, so let's get up to speed. I had a Backlash PPV party last Sunday. Paul, Dick, and Dave made it over. All right PPV, though now it seems pretty forgettable other than Triple H winning the belt, and Foley replacing Coach as commentator on Smackdown. Kind of hard to believe he went over three years without being the champ. Another reason why Backlash seems forgettable right now is because of the crazy week of wrestling that WWE had. First on RAW, they have a crazy finish I haven't seen in years where they cut off the show before the end of a match. Then on ECW, Tazz & Mike Adamle leave the broadcast booth right before the main event for whatever reason. Finally on Smackdown, Undertaker is stripped of the belt because Vickie doesn't like his submission hold that he has been using for several months now. There were several other little things too, but it all culminated for a weird, yet intriguing week of pro wrestling.
-That's about all I got for now, until next time!
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