Untouchables

It actually doesn't seem too hard, probably because it's on Easy. The tank seems pretty dumb.

The Mace

So my WoW playing has been light the past few weeks due to adult stuff, but, a few weeks ago, I was blessed by....TEH MACE!!!11!!oneone!!!




P.S. It's a bit quiet.

Edit: I won the mace too, I forget that part of the story so quickly.

Austin is the first infected!

I always knew Austin would be first, the infection is scheduled to be in the PNW by superbowl Sunday.

Left 4 Dead! Epic Fun!

I just wanted to post and say last night was epic and probably the best Left 4 Dead match of all time. I can't decide which was my favorite part:

• Finally doing well as the tank and killing every guy in the alleyway on Chapter 1?


• Killing every single one of the survivors before they even made it down the stairs in Chapter 2?


• Killing every survivor before they could make it up the ladder in the finale?


• Dan getting tackled by the hunter while in the door way of the safe room?


• Dan barely making into the chopper as the only survivor with the smoker chasing him willing his tongue grab to recharge faster?


• Kicking crappy player after crappy player off of our team and still barely losing by a technicality? (I'm still counting that one as a win, seriously, something didn't add up right)


• Getting the tank in the area where i couldn't get to the survivors, losing control to john as the survivors finally go down the friggen manhole, and john destroying them right away?


• Getting a good teammate that knew how to play the game right away for the second run through and absolutely destroying the other team?


• Having the other team block our path out of the elevator with that stupid truck thing and patiently bashing it until it moves and then having everyone make it to the safe room with almost full health?


• Watching from Dan's perspective as he ran around the top level being chased by the tank and not once getting hit?

There are just so many choices!!! Great JFT team. What did you guys most enjoy? Left 4 Dead is awesome! haha

Game Review: Skate 2

Good:
-They have basically perfected the innovative controls from the first game. Now, each face button corresponds to a limb, so there are all kinds of crazy new tricks and combos that are possible.

-There are more varied environments than the first game. Considering that you can spend hours coming up with cool stuff at one spot alone, there is almost too much to do. In particular, the stuff in the rural hills is a nice change of pace from the skate parks and city stuff.

-There are a ton of fun challenges. Danny Way's challenges in particular were awesome. He's a guy know for building crazy ramps and getting big air, and his challenges reflected that. Unlike Rob Dyrdek's lame-ass "grind these 15 rails in one minute" stuff, Way's kept it simple and fun. For example, one had you jumping off the top of a building into a pool below, and then airing out the other side and landing on the second floor walkway of the neighboring building. It's fairly basic in concept, but it still required that you experiment to find just the right angle and technique to nail it. No time limits, point totals, or gimmicky shit. Just fun. It's really too bad there are only about 10 of these. I wish the whole game was like this.

-The soundtrack actually isn't too bad. It's usually pretty hit or miss in games like these, but there are only a couple songs (that I've heard so far) that I bother to skip.


Bad:
-This is by far the most frustrating game I have ever played. There is a very high learning curve. In the first game, there were a few challenges that took me 50-100 tries to finally nail. In this game it seems like every other challenge is like that. I've almost broken my controller a few times out of pure rage. I've even fantasized about flying to wherever Black Box studios is, finding the project leader and punching him in the fucking head.

-The off-board controls are downright terrible. It's nice that you don't have to worry about curbs and stairs getting in the way now, but it's clunky and completely unintuitive. How anything this bad could make it into the final version of a fairly high profile game absolutely boggles my mind. I hope whoever was in charge of this fell victim to the job cuts that just hit their studio (yeah I'm an asshole). Seriously though, this is the kind of shit you would get when game developers were still learning how to deal with 3D movement, which was what...10 years ago?

-Some of the additions were a step in the completely wrong direction. I have no problem with having to call someone up to drain pools that you find or "uncap" (remove anti-skating measures on) rails you find, but having to call Big Black to keep security guards out of your hair is fucking stupid. It's not even that bad in theory, but the fact after I call him, he basically just runs into me and knocks over ramps and rails (thanks new physics system!) that I've set up for a time-based challenge, while mobs of security guards stand there (not attacking me, but still in my fucking way), well...that pretty much defeats the whole purpose. Seriously, there are ways to add more challenge other than adding this bush league bullshit. Learn better game design.

-This is some of the most obnoxious dialogue I have ever heard. Thank god there is a mute/subtitle option. I never knew that 'gnar' could be used as both a prefix and a suffix, let alone that it was even a fucking word to begin with. I realize that high schools kids are probably the target audience, and while I'm not brimming with hope for the next generation, they couldn't really be this dumb, right??


Overall: I don't think I've ever had a love/hate relationship with a game like I am having with Skate 2. I thought the first game was great, and this one builds on it in a lot of solid ways. The Danny Way and photo challenges are fun as hell and the Hall of Meat crashing stuff has been fleshed out into it's own mini game that's a good time-waster. And the skate controls and physics are great to boot. Unfortunately, some of the challenges are just downright ridiculous. If a game has me on the verge of chucking my controller into my TV, then something is just not right. Also, I really feel that they are veering down the wrong path with their additions. They basically knocked the Tony Hawk franchise out with one game by focusing on realism and ignoring all the gimmicky MTV bullshit. Unfortunately that seems exactly where this game is heading (just replace Bam Margera with Rob Dyrdek), which is a damn shame. There may not even be a third game due to all the cuts their studio has just fallen victim to, and honestly I don't know if that's a bad thing. They should quit while they are sort of ahead.

GTA DLC FTW?

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/947/947252p1.html
Hey, i don't know if you guys saw this but there is a ton of info on the new GTA dlc in here. About time! Anyway. This sounds pretty extensive, almost 20 hours of content, but i'm not so sure i'm as excited for this as i should be. I mean i really liked GTA. I'm way more excited about the fallout stuff then this. Its 20 dollars which is kind of steap, but not that bad. I'm kind of bummed that it is completely seperate from the original GTA, you have to choose to boot up one or the other. I don't know. What do you guys think of this? you excited? or is too late?

Watchmen viral marketing

Pretty cool. I hope they keep it up.

TheOnion.com is not funny

It seems for once the Onion has managed to write something informative, corredect, and sadly not funny. If only we would have heard them out 7 years ago back in January of 2001.

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

More after the jump:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784?Revisit

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2009/01/16/360-wifi-adapter-for-69-this-sunday-on-buy-com/
Thought i'd share this with you guys. I know you guys probably don't need the wireless adapter but they are also selling the red wireless controller with the plug and charge kit thing for <$45 which is a great deal. After all the madden games I've played i'm due for a new controller, i don't know about you guys.... So check it out. Just make sure i get mine first!

L4D update

http://pc.ign.com/articles/945/945150p1.html

It will be out on the 360 in the coming weeks.

Sounds good for the most part. Some notable changes:

Campaign
- Fixed several map exploits. (probably won't be able to do the door smashing shortcut now)

Versus
- Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route. (this might suck)
- Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch. (i'd welcome this on campaign, gonna make vs even harder)

Hunter
- Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing. (thank jebus)

Smoker
- Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break.
- Survivor's cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging

Tank
- Bashable objects now appear with a red glow.
- Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks.


Overall, it seems like most of the changes will beef up the Infected. It'll make playing as them even more fun, but I can definitely see it causing some more frustration as survivors. Also, no mention of changing exploits in VS mode.

Start training now boys!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3831916

Man, i think we could take these guys. What you think?

Star Wars Universe!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5130116/the-star-wars-galaxy-fully-mapped-in-high-resolution

In case you guys haven't seen this yet, I just wanted to share it.

http://kotaku.com/5127350/fallout-3-level-cap-getting-dialed-up-to-30

This Fallout DLC info just gets better and better. Turns out the level cap is going to be bumped all the way to 30. Considering the original cap is at 20 thats huge. Considering I finally reached level 20 last night; and the level progression bar showing level 21 is just sitting there in the bottom corner of every loading screen mocking me I can't wait for this change to come. Seriously! Why have that bar and not let it move? Its torture! Anyway, This stuff all looks great. If you haven't yet. Check out the images for the first DLC coming out. Ninja suit? good. Sweet Tank thing? good. Giant snowy Warzones? GOOOOOOODDD

Piecing together the story of Left 4 Dead

This is an interesting read:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=759074

I never really noticed that it is set in PA and that most of the in-game landmarks represent real places. The map of where each campaign probably takes place is pretty cool.

Some notes about buying Blu-rays

When it comes to blu-rays, all discs are not made equal. The quality of a hi-def transfer can vary (sometimes greatly) depending on who's releasing the disc and the effort that has been put into it. You can always go buy your favorite movies, but honestly it's not always worth it. 28 Days Later, for example, was shot on a regular handheld camera and will not look any better than a regular dvd.

I'm not going to go too much in-depth about what makes one better than the other, since it's all pretty subjective. My main reason for posting this is simply to point out that it really important to do a little research before you go on any spending sprees. There are all kinds of sites that review new discs, and the one I generally look at is Hi-Def Digest. AVSforum is another good site, but the reviews are a little more technical.

A couple buzzwords to look out for when reading reviews:

DNR - Digital Noise Reduction is something studios use to make the picture look less gritty. Basically, instead of seeing pores and wrinkles on someone's face (these are some of the details i always look for in HD), they are going to look like a wax mannequin. I'm not sure why studios do this, but it always makes a movie look worse than it should.

EE - Edge Enhancement is something applied to the edges of objects to make them stand out from the background and make the picture "pop" a little more. It creates a "halo" like effect on the object, but honestly I never really notice it. It's something that gets mentioned a lot as a negative, but I don't necessarily see it as a deal-breaker like DNR might be. The Dark Knight, for example, apparently had some edge enhancement and lots of people were pissed. This one doesn't mean as much to me, but I figured I should define it anyway.

Film Grain - This is the most noticeable thing for me and the number one thing I look for. You'll know it when you see it. In some movies it is unavoidable because a movie was shot with film rather than digitally. In these cases it doesn't really bother me, it just gives it more of a natural look. Some times it is added in the studio for artistic effect. Band of Brothers has a lot of grain in some places, but there was only one episode where it was a little distracting. 300 on the other hand, I can't watch in HD. The whole movie has a layer of grain to give it it's distinct look, and you can't really notice it in standard def (like at the theater) but in HD it really distracted me.


So yeah, those are really the main things that are mentioned in regards to picture quality, so now you know a little bit more what they are talking about when the mention it.




There are also a couple of useful sections in their forums:

The Blu-ray tier thread has all titles organized based on how good they look. Tier 0 (reference quality) is the best.


The Blu-ray bargains section is also good to keep an eye on. Basically, buying your movies at stores like Best Buy is downright stupid unless they are having a sale or the movie just came out (and is thus probably a few bucks cheaper than it will normally be. Amazon is almost always the best place to buy from. Their discs are usually 10 dollars or so cheaper than at a normal store (and shipping is free over 25 dollars). They also have sales all the time. Right now, for example, they are having a buy two, get one free sale.


Anyways, I just thought I'd share some of the pointers I've picked up. I want to make sure you guys are getting the best hi-def experience you can.

F*C* New Web sites.

I want everyone to do me a favor and travel over to espn.com. I check this site religiously. Not because its got the best coverage, in fact, i think ESPN writers other then John Clayton, Bill Simmons, and TMQ are usually pretty bad. Too many things are the best ever: best player ever, best game ever, best team ever… They need to calm to heck down over there! Anyway that’s not the point of this post. I would go to ESPN because it was the easiest to use, best designed webpage in the known universe. I could always find the top story, new columns from my favorite writers were mere clicks away. Now they have updated the site to some new monstrosity that is waaaaaayyyyy too complex. It’s obvious they are changing the design to make it easier to sell ad space and this pisses me off. The first time i booted up the new page was this morning and I got this stupid b.s. ad with video from GMC or something welcoming me to the newly designed ESPN.com. AHH. I have no problem with web advertising and i understand places have to make money somehow but my god!

The same thing happened over at IGN. I loved that site and the reason i checked it more often then other sites was strictly due to the page design being extremely easy to navigate. Then they f-ed it up to make selling ad space easier. Ads are becoming more and more obtrusive to my internet experience and its driving me away from some of my favorite sites. I may just be stuck in my ways or something, and you guys may not care about this, but I think changes should be made to improve the experience of the user. Instead these two sites made changes to make avoiding advertising harder at the expense of a good user experience. All I can say is Fuck You ESPN. You broke my heart./rant

Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

I'm a little torn as to how I feel about this film. I was intrigued by the premise (which is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)--a baby is born with the body of an old man and he ages backwards while learning and maturing mentally as normal. It starts off with an old lady telling a story on her deathbed. I wasn't too excited about this, because frankly I feel like this kind of set-up has been done to death (no pun intended). I guess it might not have worked out as well if it was done differently, but I just kept thinking about Saving Private Ryan. The story itself though is very good. The first things you notice are the special effects, which are outstanding. The way they were able to use CGI to realistically make the actors look older (and younger) is amazing--side note: the visual effects were done by the studio my aunt used to work at, so that's cool. It's very strange to see a wrinkly hobbit-esque old man that looks vaguely like Brad Pitt, but the progression you see throughout is what really makes the movie. The story generally plays out as you would expect: he grows younger while everyone that he loves grows older and dies. Along the way, he travels the world and lives through many events which are uniquely experienced given his condition. Pitt gives a great performance and Cate Blanchett does a good job as well, although her character is unlikable at times. There are some touching moments, but my main problem is that ultimately it just doesn't have a deeply resonating message. It feels more like "here's a different kind of person and these are the events in his life." I just feel like it could have been a little more profound. Another thing I feel I must mention is the length. I have no problem with long movies, and I'm sure I have a higher tolerance for slowly-paced films than the average individual (for example I loved Fincher's last film, Zodiac, which had similar complaints), but there are definitely parts within the almost three-hour run time where I felt the movie dragged. Overall, I still enjoyed it and would recommend seeing it, but I don't think it deserves the best picture awards that it will no doubt be in contention for.

3.5/5

WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!

http://gizmodo.com/5122120/stand-aside-n64-kid-someone-else-goes-nuts-for-a-wii

Someone might want to tell this kid that this system has 3 good games. And they have all already come out with no future in site. I think the n64 kid was way more convincing too. This kid kind of hesitates.... As if he was thinking, "I kind of wanted an xbox, but this is kind of cool right? Oh hell, I can tell my parents tried to get me something cool, but since they are old they don't know that only people who don't know anything about videogames buy wii's.... Oh well, its Christmas. I'll throw them a bone, AHHHHHHH!!!"