Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Dead Or Alive Ultimate

Oh yeah, I've played DOA Ultimate....and it has begun to rule my life. The only complaint that I have is the occasional lag during the online play (I only see lag on about 1 in 5 sessions), but that's a small price for me to pay to play with my friends over on the east coast. I'll post my full review a little later---probably at the same time as my KillZone review.

In the mean time, go buy it, and I'll see you online.

Monday, October 25, 2004

The Grudge

Well, it looks like we're coming to the end of another year; except that this time will be different from the past 3 years. How so? There will be no new Lord of the Rings movie coming out. I used to think of LOTR as my "end of the year good movie guarantee"; meaning that no matter how many movies let you down throughout the year, you could count on a few Hobbits to save your movie-going year. Ah, well...

So, we saw 'The Grudge' a couple of nights ago, and I must say that it was pretty spooky. Definitely worth the price of the matinee ticket. The bad thing is, we had these girls behind us talking the whole time. Now, I try to be as non-violent as possible, but even I know that there's a time to start handing out beatings. Dealing with movie-talkers is one of those times. But let's face it, if I started handing out beatings in a crowded movie theater, I'd get arrested. In order to avoid jail time, I came up with a clever plan: I'd wait until the movie got to a part that was about to be scary, and then I'd turn around and grab one of the girls' legs and scream at the top of my lungs. Of course, doing that would've probably caused the girl in question to kick me in the face and send me tumbling down the stadium seats only to end up twitching and bleeding on the floor. In addition, my woman would be stunned wondering, "why the hell did he do that?"

I decided against trying to scare the girls, but in planning my scheme, and estimating the consequences, I'd missed 5 minutes of the movie. Maybe next time I'll just turn around and tell the movie talker or talkers to STFU, and save myself the time of planning.

Anyway, sorry about the tangent. Go see 'The Grudge' with your girlfriend/wife. Especially if she's the type to get really scared. It's like seeing two shows for the price of one.

Monday, October 18, 2004

New Games Coming Out!

As if I didn’t have enough to do, now there are 5 games coming out in the next 2 months that I must play.

There’s ‘DOA Ultimate’ which looks like it’s going to take up a lot of my time due to the online capabilities via XBOX Live. There’s ‘Killzone’ which will take up plenty of time since I’ll be able to play it online for free via PS2. There’s ‘Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater’ which is probably going to make me lose my job due to excessive absences. There’s ‘Prince of Persia: Warrior Within’ which will probably make my woman force me to choose between her and the game. Luckily, there’s also ‘Halo 2’ which my woman also likes, so maybe--just maybe—she won’t leave me...

...At least until next year when ‘God of War’ and ‘Mercenaries’ come out.....


Saturday, October 16, 2004

Weird Japanese Games...or are they?

Ya know, some of these video games to come out of Japan are really....well, they're just plain weird. And, I'm not just talking about some of the poorly translated games, either ("All your base are belong to us!"). I'm talking about the dating simulators, the dance simulators, and the games that don't easily fit into any category. Like a game where you play as a mosquito and your goal is to suck the blood of an unsuspecting family without getting swatted in the process...it's called 'Mr. Mosquito', and I just rented it today. I guess that makes me a little weird, too.

It all makes me think that someday, these weird games will become commonplace here in the USA in the not-so-far-future. Just look at the way a yellow, dot-eating hockey puck being chased by ghosts caught on here. Then look at the way that secret agent taught us that sneaking around stealthily is far more effective than running in, guns blazing. Pac-Man had a few imitators, and so has Solid Snake (I'm looking in YOUR direction, Mr. Fisher...); and since imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then these games should be very flattered, indeed.

I wonder how long it'll take before I can buy a game that lets you play as an ant interacting with the colony and doing....whatever else ants do. Hell, I'd be willing to bet that the Japanese have already created that game, and grown bored with it.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Family Guy / American Dad

By now, I'm sure that everyone out there knows about the animated show called ‘Family Guy’. If you don’t know about it, then what you need to do is go down to the DVD store, and do some purchasing. Holy crap, that show was funny; if you’re looking for joke after joke after joke, then this is the show to watch. If you’re too cheap to buy the DVDs, then you can also catch it on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and TBS. Take the time to marvel at the idiot dad and the football-headed-evil-genius-toddler son. Stare in amazement at the mom who’s not afraid to kick a little ass every now and then. Gape at the teenaged daughter and son who are both insane in their own right. Pure gold, people. The best news of the year has to be that Fox (the network that originally ran this show) has decided to “uncancel” this show based on the tremendous DVD sales.

In addition, Seth MacFarlane (the guy who created FG) has another show coming out next year called ‘American Dad’. I’ve seen the six-minute pilot for AD, and I think it’s got some really good potential. It’s about a CIA agent who is always on the lookout for terrorists (to an extremely paranoid level---the man killed a toaster, people) and his family which consists of an ex-party girl wife, 2 teenaged kids, an alien from area 51, and a German talking goldfish. I hear that AD is supposed to premier after the Superbowl, but I’m not totally sure. Keep your eyes open for this one, folks.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Venture Brothers

Anyone that knows me knows that I really don't have a whole lot of time for TV. In fact, the only shows that I watch with any sort of regularity are 'Chappelle's Show' (season 3, where are you???), 'Justice League' (although it's starting to get crappy), 'Teen Titans' (hey, my lady likes it...I just happen to be there while it's on. Seriously.) , and just recently, 'The Batman'. Well, it's time to add one more show to that line-up: 'The Venture Brothers'.

Lemme tell ya, if you're an old-schooler like me, and you remember the old 'Johnny Quest' cartoon (the OLD one, not the crappy 90's update), then you MUST see TVB. Total comic goodness. Imagine if Johnny had a twin brother; if Dr. Quest was a bitter and balding inventer that didn't really care for his sons; if Race was voiced by Seinfeld's "Putty"; and if their neighbor was a Dr. Strange rip-off with a goth daughter. Oh yeah, and the brothers seem to be living in the 60's as far as clothing and dialog go, while the rest of the world is in present day. The adventures that this pack of whackos get into will have you laughing til you cry.

TVB can be found on the Cartoon Network during the Adult Swim block, and while it's mostly sophisticated humor that the young kiddies wouldn't understand anyway, you probably wouldn't want the youngsters watching it due to the halarious innuendos and occasional dirty humor.

This is funny stuff, man. Either watch it or TiVo it, but don't miss it!

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Hey, look...links!!!

Let's kick this off with some links. I'll occasionally update my links section with the web pages I recommend.

This blog created by D'Artagnan D. Smith. phoenix777. ddsmitty1. Phoenix ascension. Phoenix Rising.