So, it's been since the first week in January that I have done a blog post and I felt that it was time to bring one to you, my followers. In the past 8 months, we have gone through the summer movie season, the Great Gaming Drought of 2011 and are about to start the Gaming Monsoon of 2011 as well. Let's get started.
In the world of video games, I have been somewhat busy and in other ways not busy at all. In the time since my last post, I have beat L.A. Noire, Trenched, Renegade Ops, X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition and probably some other games that I'm forgetting. I was able to S-Rank Pac Man Championship Edition DX, Trenched and Torchlight. I now have 9 S-Ranks and I'm planning on making Wolverine my 10th, but that will probably wait since we are going to be deluged with games in the next few months. Starting tomorrow, I'll be buying 6-7 games in the next three months. Gears 3 starts that off, then it will move to Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, and on November 15th, the trifecta of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Saints Row The Third and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. I'm finally taking the plunge and ordering my games from Amazon now so I don't even have to go to stores and buy them. I preordered Battlefield today and it seems like Amazon isn't doing the $10 credit when preordering a new game which kind of stinks. I'm hopeful that all of these games will be great, and based on the pedigree and background of these studios, they should all be excellent.
In movie news, the summer movie season was awesome and definitely better than 2010. The summer started off with a bang in Fast Five and kept going with Thor, X-Men First Class, Captain America, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Harry Potter 7 Part 2. For me, Fast Five was the best movie of the summer and I would highly suggest checking it out if you are a fan of stupid action movies. Overall, the only two movies that I saw that were stinkers were Green Lantern and Cowboys and Aliens. Neither of the movies lived up to what I had hoped they would be but overall this summer was much improved from last summer, when it was only Inception that stood out in my mind.
With all of these games that I've talked about in this blog, I'm going to be giving more detailed opinions of them over the next few weeks since I'll need to start beginning to see what I'll be doing for Game of the Year since those discussions will be upon us in just a little bit. Until next time.
So, felt like doing another blog to let everyone know what's been happening since my last post about a week ago since a lot has taken place since then and that one was just looking at one thing I had done.
In video game news, I have been playing through all of the DLC in Mass Effect 2 since it was on sale during Microsoft's runup to New Year's Day event. I beat all of them since I got them and it was really nice to get back into Mass Effect 2. I am very glad that I did that because it definitely is my game of the year for 2010, even without the DLC and the add-ons just make the game better. I especially thought Overlord and Shadow Broker were really good. The Firewalker missions were also good and it proved that Mass Effect can have fun vehicle sections that control great and make you want to do more of them. I've also been playing a lot of Rock Band 3 and I must say that Harmonix has done another great job working on it. The road challenges are all excellent so far and I have enjoyed finding out which songs are good for which challenge and that helps to bring in a little more strategic element to the game in deciding how you want to tackle each challenge. Even though I bought Bayonetta at the same time as Rock Band 3, I haven't started playing it yet but I hope to in the near future.
True Grit
In movie news, I saw True Grit on opening night and I thought it was a well made movie that did everything well but not amazing. I did not think any of the principal actors had award worthy performances but to each his own. I also finally got a Netflix account, which if you read my previous blog, then you know how that went at the start. Since then, I have not watched anything I wish I could unwatch. I finally saw Some Like it Hot and I must say it is a really funny movie that holds up remarkably well today. It also helps that Marilyn Monroe is in it as well. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon did an excellent job as the two male leads and all of the supporting characters did a great job as well. The movie must have been a shock to a lot of people since it covered many things that were either not talked about in that time or people didn't even know about
Some Like it Hot
them. The ending to the movie was especially shocking to watch since it seemed to recognize homosexuality as something that was alright, when it was even more detested then than it is now. I"m working my through Battlestar Galactica right now and I may write up a blog about each season after I watch it to give my impressions on how I though it went.
In comic news, I finally started working on getting the Green Lantern saga that Geoff Johns has been working on for many years now. I picked up the Sinestro Corps War Vol 1 and 2 and will eventually begin collecting the other trades that are a part of his saga. I have also been reading through a lot of different trades including a bunch of Batman books. The most recent was the first 4 chapters of The Long Halloween. I only read the first four chapters because I had to leave but I really enjoyed what I read up to that point. It makes me wonder what happened to Jeph Loeb and why so much of his recent stuff has sucked. Pretty much all of his early Marvel and DC stuff was excellent and it seemed like it started to go downhill for him when he took over The Ultimates from Mark Millar. It may have started before that but that point is when I started to notice it.
The best game of 2010, this game took everything that was great about the first and fixed all of the things that were messed up about the first as well. Not many sequels do that and that is why this game is the best game of 2010.
After the second game, I was super surprised this game was coming out only a year after that one. I didn't think that they could put together another great game in such a quick time and also add a great multiplayer experience. They did both and with a story that messes with your mind even more, I can't wait to play the third game.
When I heard that this game was a more violent version of Zelda with a little God of War thrown in for good measure, I had to play it. I have not been disappointed and it is all around an excellent game. The puzzle elements are well done, the combat works really well and the bosses are super epic and fun to fight. Add all of these things together along with a great cast of characters and you have one of the best games of 2010 and the best new IP of the year as well.
What does EA do when they want to reboot one of the best series in the Need for Speed universe? Hand it over to Criterion, makers of Burnout of course. They take what they have perfected in Burnout and bring it to Hot Pursuit and make it one of the best Need for Speed games in a long time.
What do you take when you have Rico Rodriguez, a parachute and a grappling hook you can use to attach anything or anyone to anything else? One heck of a great game and one of the best of 2010.
Treyarch finally does right by a Call of Duty game by adding in wager matches, keeping the story super crazy but a little more grounded in reality and keeping the core multiplayer component intact. Now they just have to show they can do it over multiple iterations since Infinity Ward is no longer the number one company putting out CoD games now.
In adding pro mode and keyboard parts into the franchise that was already the best rhythm game on the market cements their hold on the top of that market for the forseeable future.
Sony has done a great job in moving this franchise from the PS2 onto the current generation. With excellent graphics, tight and responsive controls and all the blood, gore and boobs you can handle, God of War III is definitely one of the best games of 2010.
Welcome to another edition of my ramblings on video games and other stuff. My life in video games has been limited to one game and one game alone. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood has totally taken over my gaming time recently and I don't even feel sad about that. I finished the story and man, does the ending of that game seriously mess with your mind. I won't spoil it for anyone but suffice it to say, Ubisoft has done it again by making an ending that makes you want to pull your hair out at how bananas it is. I can't wait to see where they take AC3 because it will be super ridiculous. The multiplayer in that game is also excellent and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is thinking about getting it. The MP is so different from what you normally play in the FPSs because it is such a methodical MP instead of a balls to the wall approach.
Last week was Thanksgiving and I am very glad about that holiday. When there is a day devoted to stuffing your face with food, you know the country you live in is awesome. Also, the weekend is a veritable feast in terms of sports and if you wanted to, you could go for 12 hours each day starting on Thanksgiving watching live sports. Watching your favorite team win during that time just makes the weekend that much better. Also awesome is spending time with your family and just having a great time.
In movies, I have started watching some of my favorite Christmas movies with my family. We have already watched Holiday Inn, The Santa Clause and Elf. We will eventually watch the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Die Hard. Besides Christmas movies, I haven't really seen any other movies recently, except Harry Potter 7 Part 1, which I wrote a blog about on Screened a week ago or so, so check it out to read about my feelings on that.
In comics, I recently bought Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and Batman: Under the Red Hood at the Borders near my house that was going out of business. I picked up all three of them for 30 percent off, which was very nice.
Overall, this time of the year is a favorite of mine and I cannot wait to get to Christmas. I hope everyone has a safe Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or whatever it is you celebrate in the coming weeks.
Well, it has been a long time since I wrote a blog so it seems like it is the perfect time to do so. In video game news, the I have been playing some older games recently. The oldest has been Command and Conquer 3 for the 360. I really enjoy playing that game since I got back into it but I do know that if I was playing it on a PC, I would be enjoying it even more. The controls, while very easy to use on the console, are at times hard to navigate through. When trying to get to your grouped units, you have to go through a few sub menus before you can get to the groups instead of being able to cycle through them easily. I have also been playing more of Red Dead Redemption and working on the various challenges for the game. I really have enjoyed that game and I will eventually 100 percent it, even if it takes me a very long time to do so. I have also been playing more Rock Band 2 since I love that game to death. With Rock Band 3 coming out this week, I would love to pick it up but since I am still without a lot of spending money, I will have to wait until Christmas or so.
In the life of HT, I have been subbing in two of the districts around where I live but I have only been working about a day a week so I need to find ways to make teachers sick so that I can work more. My Chiefs are now 4-2 after beating the Jaguars yesterday and the Yankees are not in the World Series, so everything is pretty much right with the world.
Well, it's been a while since I posted a blog, so let's get caught up with what I've been doing.
Gameswise, I have been playing a lot of Battlefield 1943 and Lego Rock Band. In Battlefield, I have 91 games played so I'm just 9 games away from an S-Rank in it. Lego Rock Band, on the other hand, I am working on playing through every set in the game, which will take a really, really long time but it's worth 50 points, so I'll get it. I have also been playing some Forza 3 and Fallout 3, working on those achievements as well.
In personal news, I finally got the results back from the two tests I took that will let me be licensed as a teacher in Kansas. I passed both of them by over 20 points, so I applied for my license last week. I should get word soon that I can send money to the Kansas State Department of Education and then hopefully, I will be able to get a teaching job for next year. That's what has been happening with me.
Since others are talking about Leigh Alexander's second go round on the podcast, I might as well blog about it myself. So, if you will, lets take a short trip back to the past and then we will move forward to the less past. When I listened to the podcast from last E3 with Leigh on it, I hated her with a passion. She was a total fool and overpowered everyone else who was on the podcast. She was loud, obnoxious and everything a person shouldn't be at anytime, let alone on a podcast with a huge amount of people on it.
I was not able to watch any of the live streams so I did not know she was on this year until I first got on the site. When I found out she was on, I was prepared for the worst. However, she was a fairly good edition to the podcast this year. She had some good items to put out and she did not act like a total bitch so I was very pleased to listen to her. There were still some times when she was a little much but Ryan did an excellent job of reigning her in. If you watched the live stream when it was live or afterward, you can also see that she has an enormous crush on Brad. She was always looking at him with eyes that seemed to say "I want your manseed."
In conclusion, she was a nice person to have on the Bombcast and I hope that any other appearances she makes on the Bombcast are more like this year and less like last year.
Since I am now almost 20 hours into the game, I thought I would give some thoughts as to what I think of the game. If you want the short version and don't want to read my entire post, here it is: Get this game. It is awesome. Now, to some details about the game.
Story I am now into Act 3 and almost done with the missions in the city you go to there. Since I am trying to do this spoiler free, I won't talk to much about specifics, but I will say that the story is one of the best that I have come across in my time playing games. I really think John Marston is one of the best characters to come out of a game in quite some time. He is not like the normal Rockstar character in that he really wants to change his ways but to do that, he has to work for some truly horrible people. One of the characters you meet in Act 3 was such a truly ignorant person that I wished I could kill him, he was such an idiot. When you get that invested in the story, that lets you know you have a great game on your hands.
Gameplay Games that have a good story may not have good gameplay. Fortunately, this game does. Many of the things you can do in this game are awesome. Whether it is just hunting, being a sharpshooter or just looking for flowers(yes looking for flowers is fun), Rockstar has created a great world and many great things to do when you are moving from one mission to another. Like I said, I'm 20 hours or so in to the game and I have put maybe 10 hours into the story and another 10 into just random stuff. Not many games do that but this one has so many crazy things to do that you just forget about the story.
Anyway, when I am finished with the game, I will most likely have more to talk about when I finish since I hear the ending is amazing so I will see you around then.
Well, a few weeks ago I had the grilled Double Down and I have to say it is not that good. The original recipe is way better so if you plan on getting one, definitely go for the original recipe one. The grilled one is way to salty and that just overpowers the other flavors.
Well, we are now in June so it's time for another installement of Time To Get Pumped. This week has no good movies whatsoever and we are sad that Ryan Davis has no movies to see this week. At least he works for a video game website so he can play video games instead and also get wasted most likely.
Next week, however has my most anticipated movie of the summer, The A-Team. It looks like it will be an excellent update of the TV show and it seems like they got all of the characters casted perfectly. I will most likely go out and see it at midnight on Friday so you can expect to see my impressions of it on the site later that day or on Saturday.
The next week sees Toy Story 3 come out and that will hopefully be excellent as well. I really think it will be and I can't wait to see more of the continuing adventures of Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang.
The week after is kind of a let down after two weeks of AAA releases but there are two movies that I am interested in: Grown Ups and Knight and Day. Grown Ups looks pretty funny and the cast assembled for it seems like it will be a really good one. However, it could end up a stinker so I am not going to have my hopes to high for it. Knight and Day is kind of the same way. In the trailers, Tom Cruise seems to be having a hell of a time and Cameron Diaz seems to do a good job as well. I am not sure how it will work out either, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
That is the month of June for you and come back at the beginning of July to see my picks for the movies to see for that month.
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