|
|
| | Not to step out of stride or anything like that and forget my every-other-month update... I'm going to do it, I'm going to update! And what better way to start off an update than with some intro media, and in this day and age you don't have to swing a bat too hard to find a good Team Fortress 2 comic on the web:
You know what I love about being in the education field? Teachers get all the same breaks students do, and with that being said... SPRING BREAK WHOOOOOOYEAH, eh heh. So I said to myself, with all this free time, I can finally get a Xanga update up, so yeah... updatin' time! Also, I have a HUGE chunk of time to finish a book I've been working on. It's kinda... simple... (a local author, local publisher, etc.) and it's basically the Biblical creation story (you know, "let there be light", "on the sixth day God said..." "and it was good", etc.), but hey, at least its not another business card, ad design, web design, or mural painting work I've been getting lately, so it's all good. Since I'm still sorta under contract, I can only post the cover... and here it is:
So yeah, I'm still working on it, got a few more pages to do (so it won't be out til at least past June), but art, video games, and movies (and DVDs), yep that's my spring break (lol, but basically that's kinda my everyday life anyhoo... plus work at the daycare, so whatever  ). You don't hear me complaining... *awkward cough* aaaaanyhoos, at this point in the blog, I'd usually go into a movie review, but after Cloverfield... havea any watchable movies come out? Srsly. So I'll just put the movie reviews on hold for just a bit, and move on to something a little more... awesome...
Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Some call it the best game to come out for the Wii... and they are so freakin' right  ! 35 playable characters, 41 different stages to play on (and as many custom stages as you can make *squeal* they're sooooo much fun to make and play on!), assist trophies to call into battle, summonable Pokémon at your disposal, and tons usable items, weapons, powerups, as well as stage based character cameos, a soundtrack of 287 classic tunes original and remix'd. Not to mention a brand new Adventure mode featuring classic Nintendo enemies, bosses, and gameplay elements (well... DK barrels, at least), Target Test, Home Run Contest, Sticker and Trophy albums to gorge yourself in nostalgia, the Stage Editor *squeal* (my personal favorite addition, at least next to), of course, Online Play!
Like so many other games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl's online multiplayer is nothing short of being overpoweringly addictive. While Brawl's the online mode isn't as flashy as the competition *cough*Xbox Live*cough*, it's still better than playing against cheap-ass CPUs when you get the "Smash Bros. itch" at 1am... you can simply boot up Brawl, connect to wi-fi and start battling anyone, anywhere, anytime! Its just that easy... somewhat... the online service (online play not being Nintendo's selling point after all) is not without its... issues. The lack of online voice chat (what is this, the middle ages?), connection failures abound (they say a LAN adapter works better than wi-fi... iiiiit doesn't really, get some better servers Nintendo!) and playing with friends is just as much as a hassle as ever with Nintendo (lol, didn't Nintendo tell us that a Wii friend code was all we needed, now we need individual games friend codes too? Are you kidding me!?), it's still freakin' online so yeah, I guess we just have to deal with it... whatever  !
But at least with friends you can have a semblence of communication with your username, avatar, quote and taunting. When playing "With Anyone" your skills and style of gameplay do the talking for you (when playing "With Anyone", you can't even "friend request" like with Xbox Live... siiiiigh) but when you play "With Friends" you can at least put a little pizazz in your game by adding custom taunts, a personal quote and your avatar and user name. You are very limited (a 5 character user name, four 20 character taunts and a 20 character profile quote), so it's best to be quirky and spontanious. Here's mine:
Username: CROC
Friend Code: 3909-7168-7974
Quote: "So long dental plan!"
Taunt (up): "CRY SUM MOAR!!"
Taunt (down): "LOL WUT?"
Taunt (left): Goodnight, swt prince
Taunt (right): "(-_-;)"
So yeah, Super Smash Bros. Brawl rocks. It really rocks. It's the first game to tear me from the vice-like grip of Team Fortress 2 (no, seriously, I haven't played TF2 in the three weeks that Brawl has been out)! So if you're ever online and up for a brawl, just leave a reply and let me know. An awesome-awesome game, and needless to say, a must own for ALL Wii owners. Yes. OKAY. Now with that out of my system, so yeah, there was one movie that I did see since my last update, and I suppose it is worth mentioning, I guess...
The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Did you know this was a Nickelodeon Production? Huh? Hunnnnnnnh? Well I didn't, but when I saw that Nickelodeon logo splash on screen during the opening credits I bit my tongue... in hopes of suffocating myself on my own blood. Ehhhgh. Nickelodeon Productions. They ruined the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, now they're going to ruin The Spiderwick Chronicles series too...?
Hmph. Okay, actually it wasn't that bad... even as far as kids movies go anyways (there was some honest to goodness swearing, and physical child abuse too, high-five)! Plus it had a female character who could weild a foil (hello House of the Dead kick-assery)! A hidden gem of a treat, with decent acting (by the kids at least, why is it when kids take the lead role in movies the people in charge of casting gets crap actors for the parents... why??), and I never read any of The Spiderwick Chronicles, so I dunno if the deus ex machina ending was intended or not, but I didn't mind it at all (not after the - ku ku - semi-twist near the end  ). Can I honestly say it's about Ratatoullie level of entertainment...?
Yes, yes I can! I'll give the Spiderwick Chronicles a solid 8/10. Good luck trying to find this movie still in theaters thou (it like came out a month ago... I really need to review these the week they come out  ). Now, I waaaas going to insert a clever joke about waiting so long to write a review for this movie that the movie would be out on DVD to segway into my DVD reviews, but screw that, I'll just write a meta-joke about not wanting to write a joke to segway into my DVD reviews... and, ta ~ dah!
Bee Movie.
Now here's a movie that I did see in theaters, but waited too long to review and now it's on DVD . So is it better that Surf's Up? lol yeah. Is it better than Meet the Robinsons? lol yeah. Is it better than Bender's Big Score? lol no, but pretty damn close! Bee Movie is a nice movie, has some good chuckles and I fell in love with the artwork.
Also the humor reminds me of The Simpson's golden age (season 3 ~ 5 in my humble opinion, although seasons 6 ~ 9 aren't without their charm). A lot of "how is that possible, oh who cares" moments and "that makes absolutely no sense, I love it" stuff, and what I loved most about the movie is they don't result to crude slapstick "Tom and Jerry"-esque humor to appease the two year olds in the audience. The jokes are witty and even somewhat sophisticated (and not just dummed down for the kiddies, the adults with chuckle too), also the movie well written, and generally is... good. Not awesome-awesome, but heck, I own it on DVD, I've seen it at least 6 times already (had it for two weeks), it's a nice, good movie... like Cars or Toy Story 2 (yeah, it's that kind of quality... pretty, pretty darn good). But if you wanna get yourself an awesome-awesome movie, you don't have to look any further than my next review:
Justice League New Frontier.
Now this movie was awesome-awesome. Justice League New Frontier is based off of Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel Justice League New Frontier (orly?), and directed by (who else?) Bruce Timm (no complaints here)! Although I was a bit disapointed that this movie didn't take place in the same continuity as the broadcast Justic League and Justice League Unlimited (e.g. no John Stewart as Green Lantern or Wally West as Flash, rather Hal Jordan as GL and Barry Allen as Flash), and also they used the "old skool" golden age designs for the characters (lol Martian Manhunter's and Batman's design  ) but still, the movie was still soooooooooooo gooooooood. Also its... not for the kids (in the first 16 seconds someone shoots themselves in the head, blood and brains and all splatter, also throughout the movie many, many, many no-no words are used). If you ever loved the old Batman animated series, Superman animated series, or of course the Justice League/Unlimited animated series (but if you didn't like Superman Doomsday thats okay that movie was... um... not awesome ) you will (unconditionally) looooooooove Justice League New Frontier (man, I gotta see if I can get ahold of the the graphic novel this movie was based on)!! Also on my list of awesome-awesome things to review is (looky here a competent segway!):
No More Heroes.
Wow, where did this game come from? From developer Suda51 (infamous developer of bat-shit crazy games like Killer 7, lol but who played that) comes one hell of a game (fuck yeah). Blood, profanity, senseless violence, and a pinch of sex appeal make this game... outrageous. Words, simply cannot describe, here, take a look for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFxIZsy8zQg&eurl
Wow. Wow. Wow. So yeah, No More Heroes, you play the role of Travis Touchdown, an assassin who agrees to take down the top 10 assassins to become the number one assassin. This game pays lots of homage to the classic beat-em-ups of the 2D era (Battletoads, Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons Arcade Game, etc.). You start off with the assassin ranked 10th, fight through his level swarming with bad-guys to beat up (or lacerate, decapitate, amputate, and of course gut and behead, etc.) until you make it to the boss' chambers and kill him/her, moving yourself up in rank and ready for the next ranked assassin... sorta (between each assassination you have to play a quarky "part-time-job" minigame... they're funny but still tedious... like picking up garbage, scrubbing graffiti, pumping gas, you know, stuff similar like a lot of the old school beat-em-ups had those minigames inbetween levels). Throw in fowl language, gratuitous blood and guts, and some sexual innuendo and you have well... one hell of a game. I loved it. Another good pick to be on the lookout for is:
Professor Layton and the Curious Village.
A cute little game. Stylish, simple, it really is nothing but a puzzle compilation guised as a murder/mystery type game. Still, it's very challenging (break out the calculator, pad and pencil for some of these puzzles) and also very fun, and as you solve the puzzles and unravel the mystery you are rewarded with are cute and entertaining cutscenes that move the plot along:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZOAqRdDBU&eurl
Its a fun game while it lasts, and being a puzzle solving adventure game a lot of the luster is lost after you beat the game (a lá Phoenix Wright), after you know the answer to the puzzles you're pretty much done with the game... HOWEVER to remedy this Nintendo put in a feature that lets you download weekly puzzles via wi-fi connection to keep yourself entertained weeks after you have completed the game's story (and to keep the game out of the hands of profit hungry trade-in gamestores). A nice solid game, I reccomend it! Both No More Heroes and Professor Layton are really good... and then there was:
Sega Superstars Tennis.
Unless you are a HUGE fan of Sega games, I really can't recommend this game. Out for the Wii, Xbox360, PS3 and the DS (I own the Xbox360 version, it doesn't have 1 to 1 motion controls like the Wii, but it does have online, so I can at least enjoy the game with other people  ), I really can't say which version to get, but what does it matter really, this game is nothing but a pale and taudry imitation of Mario Tennis 64.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyYvvmulqsk&eurl
GODDAMN that's one sexy trailer, huh? Hell, sold me the game. The visuals are nice and my ears nearly orgasmed when I played the Samba De Amigo court ("Sempre assim! Em cima, em cima, em cima, em cima! Sempre assim! Em baixo, em baixo, em baixo, em baixo!") but the controls are... ennngh, it's like they took the controls of Mario Tennis 64 and made them... bad. You still have top spin (A), slice (X), lob (A, X) and drop shot (X, A)... but... but... no power top spin (A, A) or power slice (X, X) or power shot at all (A+X) *sob*!! Really limits what you can do in the game... at times it feels like nothing more than a glorified game of pong with Sega characters and themed courts (which do NOTHING btw, no extra bounce, no obstacles or wacky physics, just... different scenery... that's all ) but with a few trick shots you can pull off and Star Power moves (once you complete enough successful shots you can execute a Star Power move that basically makes the ball zig-zag, loop, or move all funky around the court, stun your opponent, and/or summon obstacles on the court for a limited amount of time. To add something positive, at least it has some fun minigames (hitting House of the Dead zombies, getting Puyo Pop combos, collecting Sonic the Hedgehog rings, hitting Super Monkey Ball capsules through goals, etc., etc.). BUT STAY AWAY FROM ONLINE. OMG those guys are teh hardcorz. Fuck, I can't even return any of their serves, so INTENSE. Wow. Just... just watch yourself online, I GET SERVED every time I try to play online geez (lol, get it) .
Yup. Yeah. Okay. Now another Team Fortress 2 comic I found online before I go (and believe you me, they are not hard to find!):
So yeah... that's all I got for now, until whenever I update again! Cya.
| | | Posted 3/26/2008 8:33 PM - 297 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
|
