This week, I had four days off work, two of which were paid. I don't usually get that long of a time period off from anything, and in my entire life, I've gotten to take one vacation EVER, and that was my recent trip to Ohio for a family reunion. Sure, I get two days off a week (Mondays and Tuesdays), but I don't know if many people understand what it's like. I've worked about 90% of the last 13 years of my life with full-time jobs, and a portion of that time also involved being in school (both high school and tech school). Needless to say, I learned that my world goes completely topsy-turvy whenever I have four days in a row off, and I know that two of those days are PDO (paid days off, for those non-business-term linguists).
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to be at work for Wednesday and Thursday...since they are paid days off...which meant that I was without games for two days. That's right: all the hype about Shadow Complex, and I haven't gotten to play it yet. Moreover, I won't get to play it until next week. Soooooooooo.............................I hear the game is good..........................................
One of my biggest idols, Steven Raichlen Anyways, WHAT DOES a jakob187 do when he's got four miraculous days off? Sit around the house and watch the Create channel. That's right. Between episodes of Rick Steves' Europe Classics, Travel & Tradition with Burt Wolf (whose show I don't really enjoy much because he seems to care more about getting drunk than he does the actual travel and tradition of where he's visiting), Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen, and the occasional cooking or crafts show, I spent time with my family (something I rarely get to do) while they splashed around in my parents' new pool. It's not super big...only 15' x 15', but it's a nice little chill spot for the patio yard.
I got to pick up a few new DVDs, which I haven't bought anything since my mass exodus a few months back. First on the list was the director's cut of Watchmen, which I had to travel all around town to find a copy that wasn't in a Rorschach mask for $35. The 24 extra minutes cut back into the movie helped flesh out a few extra things (like Nite Owl's attachment to Hollis Mason, some of the newspaper stand stuff, and a few extended cuts of things like the rest of the alley sequence with Laurie and Dan). There was a decent 30 minute special feature talking about the original graphic novel and the phenomenon behind it, and it was nice to hear some intelligent conversation about it from both the filmmakers as well as Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. I also picked up a copy of Gabriel, a little known movie that's pretty damn good for a movie that almost didn't happen and was made on a shoestring budget, and Best Buy happened to have a copy of The Proposition for $5, which I almost felt guilty about because that movie deserves so much more than the $5 bin treatment.
Baroness is SOOO HOT, WANT TO TOUCH THE HEINIE The biggest thing for my week, however, was seeing G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Already, I know you people are going to jump in here with "G.I. Joe sucked" and "what a horrible movie" and "man, it was loud, dumb, stupid" and all the blah blah blah. Ladies and gents...please shut up. The movie had borderline "acting", decent special effects, and plot holes bigger than a porn star's cooch...but it was fucking sweet!!! SWEET!!! It was over-the-top, ridiculous, crazy, loud, stereotypical, cliched, and I expected nothing less out of the movie. It delivered on everything I wanted (see the previous sentence) as well as reminded me of why I loved G.I. Joe as a child: it was silly and awesome at the same time! Whereas a travesty like Transformers 2 couldn't get past telling jokes about someone's nuts every 10 seconds, G.I. Joe took itself as being a movie based on a toy line and rode with it, ridiculous ideas and all. Anyone that hates on this flick simply doesn't like to be entertained. Also, the Baroness and Scarlett were H-O-T!!!
And now, an aside from my usual blogging standards:
Please don't suck. I played WoW for close to 3 years, and eventually, I quit because nothing seemed to be any different. So much seemed to have been lost and forgotten from the beginning times of what made that game truly amazing. More and more additions were being made, while folks like me sat back and said "what about Uldum and Grim Batol"...or we would look at the continued malfunctions of Ironforge Airport...or the many different things that had just fallen through the cracks in the game. Granted, my departure from the world of Azeroth wasn't a big impact on Blizzard's pocket book, but for me, it was something unique. I'd never just outright quit a game like that, and I have had no ambition to return...until the announcement of Cataclysm. This expansion answers all the questions that I've had about the game over the course of the last two very noob-friendly expansions, and it feels like a return to the old days. The minute I saw "heroic Deadmines", my heart fluttered (because as any good WoW player knows, that dungeon features some of the most powerful debuffs in the entire game). Moreover, it'll be nice to see all of the familiar landmasses that I've traveled over so many times before completely worked through destruction. This will be the expansion that gets me back into WoW, but I'm hoping that it will be something that lasts a little longer than my time with Lich King. Nonetheless, the game that brought me into MMOs in a hardcore fashion, Guild Wars, has come around with a new trailer for its sequel...and that's something I've been dying to hear information on. Therefore, it's going to be a tough competition for the two, and as any MMO player understands...you just can't play more than one.
So with that out of the way, I'll be digging into Shadow Complex next week, and hopefully I can find a copy of Wolfenstein as well (since every rental store in town has been out of stock since it launched).
This week, I had four days off work, two of which were paid. I don't usually get that long of a time period off from anything, and in my entire life, I've gotten to take one vacation EVER, and that was my recent trip to Ohio for a family reunion. Sure, I get two days off a week (Mondays and Tuesdays), but I don't know if many people understand what it's like. I've worked about 90% of the last 13 years of my life with full-time jobs, and a portion of that time also involved being in school (both high school and tech school). Needless to say, I learned that my world goes completely topsy-turvy whenever I have four days in a row off, and I know that two of those days are PDO (paid days off, for those non-business-term linguists).
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to be at work for Wednesday and Thursday...since they are paid days off...which meant that I was without games for two days. That's right: all the hype about Shadow Complex, and I haven't gotten to play it yet. Moreover, I won't get to play it until next week. Soooooooooo.............................I hear the game is good..........................................
One of my biggest idols, Steven Raichlen Anyways, WHAT DOES a jakob187 do when he's got four miraculous days off? Sit around the house and watch the Create channel. That's right. Between episodes of Rick Steves' Europe Classics, Travel & Tradition with Burt Wolf (whose show I don't really enjoy much because he seems to care more about getting drunk than he does the actual travel and tradition of where he's visiting), Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen, and the occasional cooking or crafts show, I spent time with my family (something I rarely get to do) while they splashed around in my parents' new pool. It's not super big...only 15' x 15', but it's a nice little chill spot for the patio yard.
I got to pick up a few new DVDs, which I haven't bought anything since my mass exodus a few months back. First on the list was the director's cut of Watchmen, which I had to travel all around town to find a copy that wasn't in a Rorschach mask for $35. The 24 extra minutes cut back into the movie helped flesh out a few extra things (like Nite Owl's attachment to Hollis Mason, some of the newspaper stand stuff, and a few extended cuts of things like the rest of the alley sequence with Laurie and Dan). There was a decent 30 minute special feature talking about the original graphic novel and the phenomenon behind it, and it was nice to hear some intelligent conversation about it from both the filmmakers as well as Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. I also picked up a copy of Gabriel, a little known movie that's pretty damn good for a movie that almost didn't happen and was made on a shoestring budget, and Best Buy happened to have a copy of The Proposition for $5, which I almost felt guilty about because that movie deserves so much more than the $5 bin treatment.
Baroness is SOOO HOT, WANT TO TOUCH THE HEINIE The biggest thing for my week, however, was seeing G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Already, I know you people are going to jump in here with "G.I. Joe sucked" and "what a horrible movie" and "man, it was loud, dumb, stupid" and all the blah blah blah. Ladies and gents...please shut up. The movie had borderline "acting", decent special effects, and plot holes bigger than a porn star's cooch...but it was fucking sweet!!! SWEET!!! It was over-the-top, ridiculous, crazy, loud, stereotypical, cliched, and I expected nothing less out of the movie. It delivered on everything I wanted (see the previous sentence) as well as reminded me of why I loved G.I. Joe as a child: it was silly and awesome at the same time! Whereas a travesty like Transformers 2 couldn't get past telling jokes about someone's nuts every 10 seconds, G.I. Joe took itself as being a movie based on a toy line and rode with it, ridiculous ideas and all. Anyone that hates on this flick simply doesn't like to be entertained. Also, the Baroness and Scarlett were H-O-T!!!
And now, an aside from my usual blogging standards:
Please don't suck. I played WoW for close to 3 years, and eventually, I quit because nothing seemed to be any different. So much seemed to have been lost and forgotten from the beginning times of what made that game truly amazing. More and more additions were being made, while folks like me sat back and said "what about Uldum and Grim Batol"...or we would look at the continued malfunctions of Ironforge Airport...or the many different things that had just fallen through the cracks in the game. Granted, my departure from the world of Azeroth wasn't a big impact on Blizzard's pocket book, but for me, it was something unique. I'd never just outright quit a game like that, and I have had no ambition to return...until the announcement of Cataclysm. This expansion answers all the questions that I've had about the game over the course of the last two very noob-friendly expansions, and it feels like a return to the old days. The minute I saw "heroic Deadmines", my heart fluttered (because as any good WoW player knows, that dungeon features some of the most powerful debuffs in the entire game). Moreover, it'll be nice to see all of the familiar landmasses that I've traveled over so many times before completely worked through destruction. This will be the expansion that gets me back into WoW, but I'm hoping that it will be something that lasts a little longer than my time with Lich King. Nonetheless, the game that brought me into MMOs in a hardcore fashion, Guild Wars, has come around with a new trailer for its sequel...and that's something I've been dying to hear information on. Therefore, it's going to be a tough competition for the two, and as any MMO player understands...you just can't play more than one.
So with that out of the way, I'll be digging into Shadow Complex next week, and hopefully I can find a copy of Wolfenstein as well (since every rental store in town has been out of stock since it launched).
G.I. Joe sounds like a good popcorn movie. Premier cable viewing will be sweet when it happens.
I've been unemployed for eighteen months and it's killing me, but my wife needs me. I never took vacations, unless forced, when I did work. I usually hung around the house thinking about doing something, hey wait, that's what I've been doing for the last eighteen months, weird.
I think they know they can't make Guild Wars 2 too similar to GW1, they need to keep focus on the modern controls they've been talking about. Jumping, climbing, etc. If the new races are fun to play and uniquely different as well as balanced, this should be something to look forward to.
@trophyhunter: BLECK! The Beatles can suck it. Shitty music. Best thing Paul McCartney ever did was get out of that shit.
@tekmojo: Guild Wars 1 holds close to, what, 4 or 5 million subscribers? I'd call that a massive success, sir. As a matter of fact, any game that can come close to a third of the numbers of WoW is doing pretty well for themselves in my book. They've come upon some hard economic issues, solely because of the way the economy is right now. Nonetheless, the first game was a shockingly fresh game with great gameplay and character archetypes. The idea of mixing two classes together, as well as the focus being less on gear and more on the skills you use at any given time, is what made that game shine. As long as they continue on that path, as well as offer up these dynamic and persistent world events that they've talked about in the past...AND continue to offer it all on a free subscription basis...then Guild Wars 2 could easily be the success story that NCSoft and Arenanet need. To be honest, though...I know I'm going to buy a copy Day One. My main issue is I want them to get rid of the live updates from the first game. That really killed it for me.
(because as any good WoW player knows, that dungeon features some of the most powerful debuffs in the entire game).
What, good players can't be Horde? =p
Anyway, I too am tempted, intrigued and worried by this expansion all at once. Since I haven't heard anything about new raids it may be a sign of a new direction, and maybe a more casual-friendly endgame that might be able to coexist with classes. Also rated battlegrounds sound awesome. Oh well, just have to wait and see and decide.
aw man I was wondering why you weren't on like every night playing shadow complex! I'm on my 6th playthrough just too get too level 50 now soooo yeah its good
@Everyones_A_Critic: Best Buy editions of the Director's Cut for Watchmen are encased in a Rorschach mask packaging. Problem is that I don't really care about the packaging, and I don't want to pay $15 extra for 24 minutes and decent but generally lackluster special features. Nonetheless, there is an advertisement for the Ultimate Collector's Edition inside it that spells out some of the features on that:
Comes out December 2009
5-disc set
2 hours of special features, including Hollis Mason's "Under The Hood" (which REALLY has me intrigued)
Entire director's cut with Tales of the Black Freighter plus the newspaper stand bookends woven back into the movie
So, needless to say, I'm going to be picking that up the minute it hits the shelf.
@Bigandtasty: I play Alliance, so I don't really care about Horde. However, it's always been known that Deadmines features the single toughest debuffs in any instance in WoW. That's why many have begged and pleaded for a heroic version of the instance. I mean, if I remember correctly, there's a debuff that takes your health down by 75%? Maybe it was armor. Can't remember. There's buffs that make you basically NOTHING. For those who don't remember Deadmines when WoW was first out, that instance was ALL about SKILL and gear. Without the skill, it was a wipefest. Don't get me wrong, though - I'm psyched about a heroic SFK as well, given that Arugal is still one of my favorite bosses from Old World.
@trophyhunter: Because I can't get Shadow Complex until Monday...so while everyone is blasting through it and putting up their impressions, I will yet again be delayed by at least a week. = / I hate not being able to offer a fresh opinion upon the release of a game.
Oh I know what you mean. On my days off I feel sort of lost, like I need to be doing something. You said something about that Create Channel... so addictive! I'm hypnotized by P. Allen Smith's voice and Rick Bayless' cooking. Glad to hear someone else is under the spell.
I've only played WoW for about 3 or 4 months now (and for a month I didn't) so I don't know much about it yet other than what I have already done. But, this expansion looks awesome. I own WoW and BC but I don't have WotLK yet because I have no need to. I'm still a measly lvl 29 so why would I waste $40 (especially when I don't have a job, yet) just to wait till I hit lvl 55 to even remotely consider becoming the overrated DK? I'll answer that, I wouldn't so now I'm just gonna wait to lvl up to 55 buy WotLK and then catch up to my lvl 72 friend (by then he'll be 80) so we can run around questing and doing dungeons together. Anyways I plan on buying Cataclysm too no matter how much hardcore WoW players seem to hate it.
@jakob187 said: " @Everyones_A_Critic: Best Buy editions of the Director's Cut for Watchmen are encased in a Rorschach mask packaging. Problem is that I don't really care about the packaging, and I don't want to pay $15 extra for 24 minutes and decent but generally lackluster special features. Nonetheless, there is an advertisement for the Ultimate Collector's Edition inside it that spells out some of the features on that:
Comes out December 2009
5-disc set
2 hours of special features, including Hollis Mason's "Under The Hood" (which REALLY has me intrigued)
Entire director's cut with Tales of the Black Freighter plus the newspaper stand bookends woven back into the movie
Well in that case, I see why you skipped it. I'll be using my $10 coupon for the 5-disc set this holiday season....
I wouldn't mind seeing GI Joe on Netflix Blu-Ray when it comes out but there is NO way I am paying to see that in theaters. But I do understand your boredom at home from work. It is funny that when you are not at work, you don't have access to games. In the long run, though, you are pretty lucky.
"Guild Wars 1 holds close to, what, 4 or 5 million subscribers...AND continue to offer it all on a free subscription basis"
I don't know if you know this, but an MMO with no subscription model has no subscription model. "
You still have to purchase a copy of the game and continually download the updates. In turn, since you have a purchase a copy of the game, it is a technical subscription model. I made this same exact argument one time before and got fucking owned by a Guild Wars employee in an interview for my old website. = /
@natetodamax said:
" Don't you ever disappear from Giant Bomb again, Jakob. I need you here 24/7. You know you're my financial adviser. So should I get Batman or 4000 MS points for Shadow Complex and Mass Effect? "
Never played Mass Effect. Couldn't suggest something for a game I've never played. Shadow Complex and Batman are the topic of discussion in my new blog, so I'd suggest checking that out.
Also, invest in WWE stock. I hear that shit is skyrocketing thanks to Jeff Hardy's retarded alcoholic story arc and CM Punks' whole straight-edge thing. = /
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