Wednesday, February 03, 2010
-What is up! I am back after another lengthy hiatus with another lengthy blog! We are still getting hammered with snow and bitter subzero temps recently, although we did have a nice couple of weeks where we were in the 20s and 30s before dipping back down into the temps that dominate the usually crummy North Dakota winter.
-I finally finished the second Mass Effect book, Ascension. Just like the first Mass Effect book, Revelation, I found it to be a really fascinating and interesting read. Really fleshed out the Mass Effect universe for me, and got me caught up with its history and lore. Here is my full review of both books, from a recent article I posted on Robot Panic.
-------------
The much anticipated Mass Effect 2 is being released this week and I’ve seen and heard a lot of buzz for the game across the Facebook/Twitter feeds and coworkers/friends. I am at an odd crossroads from where I stand with Mass Effect. In the original game from 2007, I made it about ten hours before I was drowning in an overflowing pool of primary quests, side quests, planet exploring and my horrible obsession to talk with everybody I run into.
I still fondly recall my time with Shepherd and Co. and want to beat it before eventually starting the sequel. However, an attempt to put some progress in finishing one quest several months ago resulted in me picking up several more side quests along the way and just throwing my hands up in the air two hours into that save without finishing a quest.
I did discover two items in the past several months to keep me immersed in the Mass Effect lore, and those are the two novels by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation and Ascension. Usually I am not one for science fiction (I am just now remembering getting bored and giving up on a Star Trek book report several pages in during the 7th grade), and was surprised I actually got into the game itself. Just as Bioware’s game reeled me in, as does the novels.Mass Effect
Revelation starts off detailing the origins of humanity’s discovery of Prothean technology that led to the First Contact War against species of the Citadel. Within pages I was instantly hooked because I could not remember for the life of me how much I learned of humanity’s Citadel origins in the game. Revelation does a fantastic job at filling me in about humanity’s place in the Citadel, and almost every other race I recall from the game such as the Protheans, Geth, Turians, Collectors, Krogans and many more.
Revelation primarily revolves around Commander David Anderson, a respected leader of humanity, attempting to track down and rescue Kahlee Sanders, a scientist gone AWOL and suspected for treason as her classified base on Sidon is assaulted and with all her comrades killed in the ensuing carnage. Anderson forms an uneasy alliance with the renowned Spectre, Saren in a attempt to rescue her and track down a mysterious Prothean Artifact another scientist at Sidon was obsessively researching on. Revelation unfolds almost like a stereotypical action movie, but there is something about Karpyshyn’s storytelling and taking in the roots of the Mass Effect lore in the process that makes this first book an addicting page-turner from beginning to end.
Ascension is set 15-20 years later, and now follows in the footsteps of Kahlee Sanders. She is now one of the leads at the top secret Ascension Project. It is a program aimed at human children gifted with Biotics and helping them hone and develop their ability. One of their students, Gillian is a peculiar subject who often isolates herself from the rest of the class yet shows incredibly potential. Many outside parties also have an invested interest in her potential, which leads to sinister plotting, betrayals, double and triple crosses and intense shootouts all in the name to preserve humanity.
Ascension has more narrative than action compared to Revelation. It dives deep into the history of the Ascension Project, Biotics, the Migrant Fleet, the Collectors and the massive Cerebus Network under the control of its puppeteer, The Illusive Man. I eventually appreciated Ascension’s emphasis on introducing the characters and spending more time establishing their motives. It resulted with a far more intriguing plot and better payoffs in the end.
Even with my on and off again interest in the Mass Effect game, I find myself loving the novels that resulted from it. From the few hours I put into Mass Effect since reading the books, it has already put so much more into perspective. Bioware are masters at telling a great story in their games, and the books go hand in hand and are in no way a quick cash in of the license. I am eagerly awaiting the recently announced third book in the Mass Effect line titled Retribution. Unfortunately, none of the books come with a code to access the Cerebus Network in Mass Effect 2.
-------------
How appropriated I finished Ascension within a week of Mass Effect 2 hitting retailers. It motivated me to pick up continue where I left off on my nearly two year old save from the original Mass Effect and I finally finished I quest I got lost and left off on. I refuse to play the sequel until I finish Mass Effect, which may be awhile because the quest I finished seems relatively early in the game. I am only around 13 hours or so in, and I just beat that quest on the planet Feros, or was it Theros, where I helped a human colony on the outskirts of Citadel space that was dealing with a Geth invasion.
-Since my last blog, NBC has settled their business with Conan and he has stopped airing new episodes of The Tonight Show on NBC. There will be repeats until Leno takes over again in the beginning of March. I am going to miss Conan, but hopefully it looks like FOX or someone is going to pick him up once his no compete clause expires in September. I got no problem with Jay Leno, I simply prefer Conan more and wished NBC would have at least given him a full year or two to let him establish an audience. I am thinking FOX would most likely give him a chance since they are the only major network without a late night show.
-A little over a week ago, I met up with Jim & Paul at their place, along with one of their friends, Mike to play the legendary board game Risk! Long time readers of this blog may remember that about two or three times a year we meet up and play Risk all night long. I brought another one of my little Scattergories this time to mix it up. We had a kickass time, and we played a ton of Risk, and drank a lot of beer, and Mike and I devoured nearly an entire bowl of pretzels throughout the night. We played two games of Risk. The first game Paul and I were on a team and we got annihilated by Jim & Mike within four turns! I think Paul and I had the worst luck in die rolls in the history of Risk ever! The second game was a four player free for all epic! I ended up taking all of North America in two turns with some surprise attacks, and was on a roll. We were having a blast, but three or four hours into the game Jim accidentally knocked over a bottle of beer on the Risk game and we had no choice but to declare a stalemate.
After the Risk extravaganza, Jim & Paul insisted I challenge them in their favorite video game. Now they do not have a PS3 or 360, but they do have a PS2 and absolutely love 007: Agent Under Fire multiplayer. We played it on Jim's big screen, and for being an eight year old PS2 FPS, it still kind of holds up(granted it is no Halo or Call of Duty, but for what it is, it still had some fun to be had). We then proceeded to play a couple rounds of Scattergories, and catch a super late night/early morning breakfast at the truck stop at 7am and called it a night. Can't wait to do it again six months or so from now!
-I also wrote another article recently for my buddy Ryan's website detailing how awesome this past January was for videogame releases. I would link to it, but it will probably be purged off the site soon, so here it is in all its glory!
--------------------
I want to rave on how this has been easily the best January in the history of gaming. January is historically known as being one of the driest months for new releases throughout the year. Typically, it is the month gamers spend catching up on all the new games they got for Christmas. Now over the past few years, March and April have been emerging as big release months for games that got pushed back from the previous holiday season. Sometimes this could be because a game could use a few months for extra polish, or because the holiday lineup is just too loaded as it is. Take a look at last holiday’s big sellers like Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Halo 3 ODST and Assassins Creed II, among others.
With all those releases it was no surprise that so many games got pushed back or announced as Spring 2010 release dates. Traditional holiday top sellers like Splinter Cell and Final Fantasy will be having their latest installments debuting in the spring time. Then something strange happened, there was a blitz among publishers to beat the now hot March and April months by getting their games out the door as early as January.
This January, we had not one, not two, not three, but four noteworthy releases! Debuting the same week was Darksiders and Bayonetta. Darksiders caught everyone by surprise. Its Zelda-inspired dungeons and puzzles, crossed with God of War-esque combat proved to be a hit with critics. Sega’s Bayonetta won over fans with its eccentric heroine, over-the-top plot and redefining the style of action that Capcom made popular with Devil May Cry.
EA stepped up to the plate the next week by releasing the sequel to 2008’s Gears of War-style third person shooter with Army of Two: The 40th Day. I am a fan of the original Army of Two, it had some problems, but I loved its emphasis on a co-op campaign. From what I have played of the sequel, it is more of the same co-op action, but now more polished and less rough around the edges with an enjoyable campaign, and now a far more improved online multiplayer component.
Finally, we close out January with the biggest release yet; the much anticipated Mass Effect 2 from Bioware. I got caught up in the hype to continue Commander Sheperd’s quest for galactic peace that it motivated me earlier this week to finally pick up my original Mass Effect save from nearly two years ago. Being able to import your completed character save from the original game enticed me enough to throw the first Mass Effect back into my 360 in hopes of one day finishing it and importing him into the sequel.
So there you have it, if this does not count of as one of the grandest beginning of the year kickoffs in the history of gaming, than I have no idea what does.
-Just a few days Kurt Warner retired from football. He was one of my favorite players to watch and follow over the last several seasons. The guy just has one of the most intriguing stories in football. He failed to make the packers in 1994, and instead toiled away in Arena Football and NFL Europe for a few years before landing with the Rams and lending his role in "The Best Show on Turf." Injuries then plagued him for several seasons before having a spectacular final three years with the Cardinals. He managed to put up some pretty impressive numbers considering the amount of starts he had in his career, and even though he does not have the consistency, I think that the number of Pro Bowl-caliber seasons he had, and how he managed to bring two of the then-worst NFL franchises to prominence is worthy of landing him into the Hall of Fame.
-The latest episode of On Tap went up yesterday with show #115. Right click here to download. This show was something Matt and I have been meaning to do for awhile. We kept tabs on all the games we beat this year to see who could complete more. On this episode we rundown our lists, giving micro reviews of each game along the way. What results is in nearly 100 games getting reviewed in one of our longest episodes yet, just going over the two and a half hour mark.
Speaking of the podcast, I put out a request on our forums over at VGevo. In a couple episodes we will be recording a NES retrospective in honor of it being the 25th anniversary of the NES in North America. I want to get the listeners involved, and asked for everyone to post/email their Top 10 NES Games lists, and we will add up all the totals for one cumulative community Top 10, along with chiming in with our own commentary along the way. For those that read this blog and want to participate, check out the forum to post your top 10 or email us at mailbag@ontappodcast.com.
-The final season of Lost premiered last night. I will copy and past my thoughts from the comment I left on Mr. Greenwell's journal - Yep, that episode hooked me in again. I re-watched the amazing two hour finale of last season in prep for the two hour premiere. I liked the path they are taking with the whole two parallel universes angle. After the premiere, I was reminded why I love and hate Lost. That is because for every question they reveal or justify, they raise another question and mystery to keep the WTF balance equal.
Speaking of television series, I am caught up on Entourage now through Season 3. Other than a couple of shows I am loving nearly every episode of it. I like how season three closes with Johnny on the cusp of regaining his popularity and Vince near a career low putting everything on the line to make his comeback. I am on disc three of season one of Veronica Mars. Other than things occasionally getting a little too high school drama-ish for me from time to time I am also getting very much into this show! I also caught the two day, four hour premiere of the new season of 24. Just like Lost, each episode has that trademark cliffhanger to keep me anticipating the next week, which is why I am going to watch this season in 2 to 3 hour blocks. Anyone reading this into 24, Entourage or Veronica Mars?
-So here are some quick thoughts on what is going on in the wrestling world. Vince announced that the ECW show as we know it will be folding in three weeks and will be relaunched as a new show, currently rumored to be called "NXT" Wrestling. I think it will still be the same concept as ECW, with it still serving as WWE's version of a AAA league of wrestling, but now with just entirely new/developmental stars. TNA has been interesting to watch as of late since Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff have taken over as the new on-air GMs. I would like a little more emphasis on the in-ring wrestling and good 'ol wrestling feuds instead of trying to mix in too much "backstage business that is trying to pretend they are conducting legit real business" shenanigans. i.e. the way TNA handled on air "firing" of Bobby Lashley was a joke, but it was a reason to get him out of TNA and to focus on his MMA career in Strike Force with his recent win that got him up to a perfect 5-0 record now.
On Smackdown I am digging the CM Punk's straight edge society and the way he took his character to make him like a Charley Manson wannabe...so I guess that is what CM stands for. RAW continues to serve my pizzaz demands of wrestling with its hit or miss guest hosts. Mike Tyson was pretty fun, and William Shatner was more of a "what the hell" kind of guest host. I had a Royal Rumble party that saw a pretty good turnout last Sunday. Rumble itself was pretty good as I was almost counting on Shawn Michaels to win, but the traditional Rumble surprise entrant taking it all was a worthy substitute with Edge winning.
Matt and I also have kicked off our project to watch 40 PPVs this year a couple weeks ago. I own the Royal Rumble Anthology, and Matt owns the Summerslam Anthology. Each set features the first 20 installments of each PPV from 1988-2007. We plan on watching one a week, and occasionally take a week off and hope to finish them all by the end of the year! So far we watched the first installment of each PPV. Royal Rumble '88 is highlighted by Jim Duggan winning the first Rumble and having a shitty main event. Summerslam '88 will go down as the war between the Mega Powers and the Mega Bucks, and for Ultimate Warrior's first singles title win where he ended the longest IC title reign from the Honky Tonk Man and defeated him in under a minute to capture the strap.
-So here is what I have been playing recently other than what I listed above
Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection - Trying to beat the Williams Challenge now, and failed after several attempts
Zen Pinball - Zen released a new DLC table entirely themed around Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and it is one of their best tables yet!
Pinball FX - Not to abandon their 360 game, Zen also released a new medieval themed table titled, "Excalibur" and it is one of their hardest tables to come out, out of a dozen attempts my highest score is just shy of a million
MK vs. DC - Finally beat the MK side of the story, now I just need to start the DC side. Also got the 10 Online Games achievement and got schooled by plenty of MK vs DC pros along the way
LEGO Rock Band - Matt and I have been continuing our Story Mode in this and putting in a few hours every week. The rock challenges are entertaining music videos.
Borderlands - Only knocked out a couple of quests while trying to complete the last of the core achievements I have left
Darksiders - Rented this and put in a few hours, really digging this Zelda/God of War/Panzer Dragoon hybrid from what I played so far. One day I will borrow it from Matt and beat it!
Anticipating - I have BioShock 2 on reserve which hits in a week, and only a couple weeks later my most anticipated game in some time(and the reason I bought a PS3), Heavy Rain launches! I downloaded the Dynamic Theme for Heavy Rain the other day, and it is exactly as the title of the game describes, which is disappointing and a waste of $3!
-That is all I have this week, later!
-I finally finished the second Mass Effect book, Ascension. Just like the first Mass Effect book, Revelation, I found it to be a really fascinating and interesting read. Really fleshed out the Mass Effect universe for me, and got me caught up with its history and lore. Here is my full review of both books, from a recent article I posted on Robot Panic.
-------------
The much anticipated Mass Effect 2 is being released this week and I’ve seen and heard a lot of buzz for the game across the Facebook/Twitter feeds and coworkers/friends. I am at an odd crossroads from where I stand with Mass Effect. In the original game from 2007, I made it about ten hours before I was drowning in an overflowing pool of primary quests, side quests, planet exploring and my horrible obsession to talk with everybody I run into.
I still fondly recall my time with Shepherd and Co. and want to beat it before eventually starting the sequel. However, an attempt to put some progress in finishing one quest several months ago resulted in me picking up several more side quests along the way and just throwing my hands up in the air two hours into that save without finishing a quest.
I did discover two items in the past several months to keep me immersed in the Mass Effect lore, and those are the two novels by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation and Ascension. Usually I am not one for science fiction (I am just now remembering getting bored and giving up on a Star Trek book report several pages in during the 7th grade), and was surprised I actually got into the game itself. Just as Bioware’s game reeled me in, as does the novels.Mass Effect
Revelation starts off detailing the origins of humanity’s discovery of Prothean technology that led to the First Contact War against species of the Citadel. Within pages I was instantly hooked because I could not remember for the life of me how much I learned of humanity’s Citadel origins in the game. Revelation does a fantastic job at filling me in about humanity’s place in the Citadel, and almost every other race I recall from the game such as the Protheans, Geth, Turians, Collectors, Krogans and many more.
Revelation primarily revolves around Commander David Anderson, a respected leader of humanity, attempting to track down and rescue Kahlee Sanders, a scientist gone AWOL and suspected for treason as her classified base on Sidon is assaulted and with all her comrades killed in the ensuing carnage. Anderson forms an uneasy alliance with the renowned Spectre, Saren in a attempt to rescue her and track down a mysterious Prothean Artifact another scientist at Sidon was obsessively researching on. Revelation unfolds almost like a stereotypical action movie, but there is something about Karpyshyn’s storytelling and taking in the roots of the Mass Effect lore in the process that makes this first book an addicting page-turner from beginning to end.
Ascension is set 15-20 years later, and now follows in the footsteps of Kahlee Sanders. She is now one of the leads at the top secret Ascension Project. It is a program aimed at human children gifted with Biotics and helping them hone and develop their ability. One of their students, Gillian is a peculiar subject who often isolates herself from the rest of the class yet shows incredibly potential. Many outside parties also have an invested interest in her potential, which leads to sinister plotting, betrayals, double and triple crosses and intense shootouts all in the name to preserve humanity.
Ascension has more narrative than action compared to Revelation. It dives deep into the history of the Ascension Project, Biotics, the Migrant Fleet, the Collectors and the massive Cerebus Network under the control of its puppeteer, The Illusive Man. I eventually appreciated Ascension’s emphasis on introducing the characters and spending more time establishing their motives. It resulted with a far more intriguing plot and better payoffs in the end.
Even with my on and off again interest in the Mass Effect game, I find myself loving the novels that resulted from it. From the few hours I put into Mass Effect since reading the books, it has already put so much more into perspective. Bioware are masters at telling a great story in their games, and the books go hand in hand and are in no way a quick cash in of the license. I am eagerly awaiting the recently announced third book in the Mass Effect line titled Retribution. Unfortunately, none of the books come with a code to access the Cerebus Network in Mass Effect 2.
-------------
How appropriated I finished Ascension within a week of Mass Effect 2 hitting retailers. It motivated me to pick up continue where I left off on my nearly two year old save from the original Mass Effect and I finally finished I quest I got lost and left off on. I refuse to play the sequel until I finish Mass Effect, which may be awhile because the quest I finished seems relatively early in the game. I am only around 13 hours or so in, and I just beat that quest on the planet Feros, or was it Theros, where I helped a human colony on the outskirts of Citadel space that was dealing with a Geth invasion.
-Since my last blog, NBC has settled their business with Conan and he has stopped airing new episodes of The Tonight Show on NBC. There will be repeats until Leno takes over again in the beginning of March. I am going to miss Conan, but hopefully it looks like FOX or someone is going to pick him up once his no compete clause expires in September. I got no problem with Jay Leno, I simply prefer Conan more and wished NBC would have at least given him a full year or two to let him establish an audience. I am thinking FOX would most likely give him a chance since they are the only major network without a late night show.
-A little over a week ago, I met up with Jim & Paul at their place, along with one of their friends, Mike to play the legendary board game Risk! Long time readers of this blog may remember that about two or three times a year we meet up and play Risk all night long. I brought another one of my little Scattergories this time to mix it up. We had a kickass time, and we played a ton of Risk, and drank a lot of beer, and Mike and I devoured nearly an entire bowl of pretzels throughout the night. We played two games of Risk. The first game Paul and I were on a team and we got annihilated by Jim & Mike within four turns! I think Paul and I had the worst luck in die rolls in the history of Risk ever! The second game was a four player free for all epic! I ended up taking all of North America in two turns with some surprise attacks, and was on a roll. We were having a blast, but three or four hours into the game Jim accidentally knocked over a bottle of beer on the Risk game and we had no choice but to declare a stalemate.
After the Risk extravaganza, Jim & Paul insisted I challenge them in their favorite video game. Now they do not have a PS3 or 360, but they do have a PS2 and absolutely love 007: Agent Under Fire multiplayer. We played it on Jim's big screen, and for being an eight year old PS2 FPS, it still kind of holds up(granted it is no Halo or Call of Duty, but for what it is, it still had some fun to be had). We then proceeded to play a couple rounds of Scattergories, and catch a super late night/early morning breakfast at the truck stop at 7am and called it a night. Can't wait to do it again six months or so from now!
-I also wrote another article recently for my buddy Ryan's website detailing how awesome this past January was for videogame releases. I would link to it, but it will probably be purged off the site soon, so here it is in all its glory!
--------------------
I want to rave on how this has been easily the best January in the history of gaming. January is historically known as being one of the driest months for new releases throughout the year. Typically, it is the month gamers spend catching up on all the new games they got for Christmas. Now over the past few years, March and April have been emerging as big release months for games that got pushed back from the previous holiday season. Sometimes this could be because a game could use a few months for extra polish, or because the holiday lineup is just too loaded as it is. Take a look at last holiday’s big sellers like Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Halo 3 ODST and Assassins Creed II, among others.
With all those releases it was no surprise that so many games got pushed back or announced as Spring 2010 release dates. Traditional holiday top sellers like Splinter Cell and Final Fantasy will be having their latest installments debuting in the spring time. Then something strange happened, there was a blitz among publishers to beat the now hot March and April months by getting their games out the door as early as January.
This January, we had not one, not two, not three, but four noteworthy releases! Debuting the same week was Darksiders and Bayonetta. Darksiders caught everyone by surprise. Its Zelda-inspired dungeons and puzzles, crossed with God of War-esque combat proved to be a hit with critics. Sega’s Bayonetta won over fans with its eccentric heroine, over-the-top plot and redefining the style of action that Capcom made popular with Devil May Cry.
EA stepped up to the plate the next week by releasing the sequel to 2008’s Gears of War-style third person shooter with Army of Two: The 40th Day. I am a fan of the original Army of Two, it had some problems, but I loved its emphasis on a co-op campaign. From what I have played of the sequel, it is more of the same co-op action, but now more polished and less rough around the edges with an enjoyable campaign, and now a far more improved online multiplayer component.
Finally, we close out January with the biggest release yet; the much anticipated Mass Effect 2 from Bioware. I got caught up in the hype to continue Commander Sheperd’s quest for galactic peace that it motivated me earlier this week to finally pick up my original Mass Effect save from nearly two years ago. Being able to import your completed character save from the original game enticed me enough to throw the first Mass Effect back into my 360 in hopes of one day finishing it and importing him into the sequel.
So there you have it, if this does not count of as one of the grandest beginning of the year kickoffs in the history of gaming, than I have no idea what does.
-Just a few days Kurt Warner retired from football. He was one of my favorite players to watch and follow over the last several seasons. The guy just has one of the most intriguing stories in football. He failed to make the packers in 1994, and instead toiled away in Arena Football and NFL Europe for a few years before landing with the Rams and lending his role in "The Best Show on Turf." Injuries then plagued him for several seasons before having a spectacular final three years with the Cardinals. He managed to put up some pretty impressive numbers considering the amount of starts he had in his career, and even though he does not have the consistency, I think that the number of Pro Bowl-caliber seasons he had, and how he managed to bring two of the then-worst NFL franchises to prominence is worthy of landing him into the Hall of Fame.
-The latest episode of On Tap went up yesterday with show #115. Right click here to download. This show was something Matt and I have been meaning to do for awhile. We kept tabs on all the games we beat this year to see who could complete more. On this episode we rundown our lists, giving micro reviews of each game along the way. What results is in nearly 100 games getting reviewed in one of our longest episodes yet, just going over the two and a half hour mark.
Speaking of the podcast, I put out a request on our forums over at VGevo. In a couple episodes we will be recording a NES retrospective in honor of it being the 25th anniversary of the NES in North America. I want to get the listeners involved, and asked for everyone to post/email their Top 10 NES Games lists, and we will add up all the totals for one cumulative community Top 10, along with chiming in with our own commentary along the way. For those that read this blog and want to participate, check out the forum to post your top 10 or email us at mailbag@ontappodcast.com.
-The final season of Lost premiered last night. I will copy and past my thoughts from the comment I left on Mr. Greenwell's journal - Yep, that episode hooked me in again. I re-watched the amazing two hour finale of last season in prep for the two hour premiere. I liked the path they are taking with the whole two parallel universes angle. After the premiere, I was reminded why I love and hate Lost. That is because for every question they reveal or justify, they raise another question and mystery to keep the WTF balance equal.
Speaking of television series, I am caught up on Entourage now through Season 3. Other than a couple of shows I am loving nearly every episode of it. I like how season three closes with Johnny on the cusp of regaining his popularity and Vince near a career low putting everything on the line to make his comeback. I am on disc three of season one of Veronica Mars. Other than things occasionally getting a little too high school drama-ish for me from time to time I am also getting very much into this show! I also caught the two day, four hour premiere of the new season of 24. Just like Lost, each episode has that trademark cliffhanger to keep me anticipating the next week, which is why I am going to watch this season in 2 to 3 hour blocks. Anyone reading this into 24, Entourage or Veronica Mars?
-So here are some quick thoughts on what is going on in the wrestling world. Vince announced that the ECW show as we know it will be folding in three weeks and will be relaunched as a new show, currently rumored to be called "NXT" Wrestling. I think it will still be the same concept as ECW, with it still serving as WWE's version of a AAA league of wrestling, but now with just entirely new/developmental stars. TNA has been interesting to watch as of late since Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff have taken over as the new on-air GMs. I would like a little more emphasis on the in-ring wrestling and good 'ol wrestling feuds instead of trying to mix in too much "backstage business that is trying to pretend they are conducting legit real business" shenanigans. i.e. the way TNA handled on air "firing" of Bobby Lashley was a joke, but it was a reason to get him out of TNA and to focus on his MMA career in Strike Force with his recent win that got him up to a perfect 5-0 record now.
On Smackdown I am digging the CM Punk's straight edge society and the way he took his character to make him like a Charley Manson wannabe...so I guess that is what CM stands for. RAW continues to serve my pizzaz demands of wrestling with its hit or miss guest hosts. Mike Tyson was pretty fun, and William Shatner was more of a "what the hell" kind of guest host. I had a Royal Rumble party that saw a pretty good turnout last Sunday. Rumble itself was pretty good as I was almost counting on Shawn Michaels to win, but the traditional Rumble surprise entrant taking it all was a worthy substitute with Edge winning.
Matt and I also have kicked off our project to watch 40 PPVs this year a couple weeks ago. I own the Royal Rumble Anthology, and Matt owns the Summerslam Anthology. Each set features the first 20 installments of each PPV from 1988-2007. We plan on watching one a week, and occasionally take a week off and hope to finish them all by the end of the year! So far we watched the first installment of each PPV. Royal Rumble '88 is highlighted by Jim Duggan winning the first Rumble and having a shitty main event. Summerslam '88 will go down as the war between the Mega Powers and the Mega Bucks, and for Ultimate Warrior's first singles title win where he ended the longest IC title reign from the Honky Tonk Man and defeated him in under a minute to capture the strap.
-So here is what I have been playing recently other than what I listed above
Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection - Trying to beat the Williams Challenge now, and failed after several attempts
Zen Pinball - Zen released a new DLC table entirely themed around Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and it is one of their best tables yet!
Pinball FX - Not to abandon their 360 game, Zen also released a new medieval themed table titled, "Excalibur" and it is one of their hardest tables to come out, out of a dozen attempts my highest score is just shy of a million
MK vs. DC - Finally beat the MK side of the story, now I just need to start the DC side. Also got the 10 Online Games achievement and got schooled by plenty of MK vs DC pros along the way
LEGO Rock Band - Matt and I have been continuing our Story Mode in this and putting in a few hours every week. The rock challenges are entertaining music videos.
Borderlands - Only knocked out a couple of quests while trying to complete the last of the core achievements I have left
Darksiders - Rented this and put in a few hours, really digging this Zelda/God of War/Panzer Dragoon hybrid from what I played so far. One day I will borrow it from Matt and beat it!
Anticipating - I have BioShock 2 on reserve which hits in a week, and only a couple weeks later my most anticipated game in some time(and the reason I bought a PS3), Heavy Rain launches! I downloaded the Dynamic Theme for Heavy Rain the other day, and it is exactly as the title of the game describes, which is disappointing and a waste of $3!
-That is all I have this week, later!
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