I'd like to thank the poor support of the Detroit Red Wings fans for allowing myself and my friends to grab a bunch of tickets to Game 1 tonight.
Since getting tickets here is hard (as we sellout every game) and my season tickets are still on the waiting list, this was about the only way I could see the Pens this playoff season. What a time to finally get tickets! The only problem is the tickets are in Detroit, but I've survived several Detroit trips in the past. Some even involved being held up at gunpoint (well sort of), but that is another story!
We are about to leave in an hour for what should become an epic time in Motown, hopefully with our beloved Penguins getting the early 1-0 series lead for the most glorious prize in all of sports. Plus this trip will involve at least one, if not two trips to White Castle. And that is something you just can not pass up given the chance!
Sack full of White Castle Burgers... $5
Stanley Cup Finals Ticket... $200
Road trip with dreams of Stanley Cup Glory... Priceless
LET'S GO PENS!!]]>
The Muffin Tops episode
That is why it was on the show! Seinfeld was far-fetched and yet so believable, that's why it was one of the best television programs of all time. Now this could either be taken as a great homage to Seinfeld or someone with absolutely no talent stealing an idea that is doomed to fail. I personally think it's destined for the Locker as it is just a ludicrous idea. If I were a kid I'd be asking where the rest of the muffin is!
What's next; Pudding Skin Singles?]]>
Anacrusis has done just this: upon listening to their albums "Manic Impressions" and their later "Scream and Whispers" I find my jaw dropped, ears poised and my idea of hard music once again challenged.
Ok, so the covers are a little gay, but so what? What you will encounter is euphoric.
Manic Impressions is the album that set Anacrusis apart from their earlier thrash metal days and pushed their music to progressive metal status. From the very first track, the thrash roots are still very much alive. However, a few short minutes in the song and you are taken to a segue to a place I never imagined the album going. Musical elements like these are what set good bands apart from the truly exceptional ones. The album closer Far Too Long is nothing short of an epic master piece. Even though the track (as well as the album) sounds very cold, it is also easy to see how this track eludes to their final, and best effort, Screams and Whispers.
Screams and Whispers is Megadeth's Rust In Peace, Sepultura's Beneath the Remains, Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops, Dillinger Escape Plan's Calculating Infinity, Carcass' Heartwork, At the Gates' Slaughter the Soul (you get the idea how good this album is yet?) I simply cannot think of one album off hand that has the freshness that this album explodes from the seems with.
Video of their lead track from Screams and Whispers titled "Sound the Alarm"
In 1991, Anacrusis was well ahead of the metal curve. In 1993, they defined it.
BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!!!]]>
The first thing that sticks out is the presentation. The first thing that you hear is an radio call from a previous seasons. It's a nice twist instead of hearing annoying rap music. The actual soundtrack is great also. The soundtrack includes names like, The Ramones, WAR, A Tribe Called Quest, Queens of the Stone Age, ZZ Top and more.
The game has three modes: Road to the Show, Career, and Franchise. The Franchise mode is where you handle all aspects of the team. MLB 08: The Show gives you goals to be reached in a certain amount of time. If they are completed, then the franchise will continue with a contract extension and more goals. You have to handle the finances, the fan support, the concession stands, contracts, etc. This is the mode that I have played in the first five days that I have owned a PS3.
The visuals within the game are fantastic, as well. The baseball parks and their backgrounds are pretty dead on. At PNC Park, the skyline has every building and of course, the Roberto Clemente Bridge is correctly placed(unlike MLB 2k7). Another example of the great visuals is at Shea Stadium where there is a crane and construction crews working behind the CF area. That is where the Mets new stadium will be.
The gameplay is very good. I have seen a few bugs with the fielding aspect, but nothing extremely major. I am still learning how to field, so that could be an issue as well. MLB 08: The Show and the Sony team also added Batting and Pitching Analysis Tools. These come in quite handy while batting or pitching. I like using the tool mainly batting because it will show where the pitches were and what type of pitches that were thrown. It shows what the pitcher is doing and where he might throw.
Overall this game is fantastic and I recommend it to the sports or baseball fans. If you really don't like baseball, this game is not for you.
Wesside Rating: 9.25/10
IGN Rating: 8.7/10]]>
NHL 94 Online is comprised of a group of people who decided to mod EA's NHL 94 for both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, keeping all the game mechanics as they were originally with many different league options. There is a Classic '94 league where you play as the rosters were in '94; there is also a Juiced league where all the players attributes are boosted to 100 and your HGH dreams come true; there is also a few guys who update the game with 07/08 NHL rosters! On top of this, users register with the site and join leagues that allow them to play full season out using emulators and playing live with your opponents over the internet. This is a true hockey geek's pleasure as most of us who grew up in the era of these two systems. I fondly remember tournaments among friends that would last long hours and usually end up with at least a broken controller or two after Mario Lemieux sneaks yet another past Eddie the Eagle. Ah the days of making your friends angrier than they ever been because of 16-bit hockey. Can it get any better than that?
Generator Sega Genesis Emulator for Mac. Best one out there!
Super Metroid Redesign is an ENTIRE redesign of the old classic that we have all come to love. If you haven't played the original game, you are missing out. This is easily one of the best games that has been put out on any system, ever. The redesign, however, is simply MASSIVE. This is what all Metroid fans imagined the planet Zebes is to be: confusing, isolating and overwhelming. The original Super Metroid could be completed by the average player in under an hour after they knew where to go and what to do. This redesign seems like it'll take much longer than that, even for the seasoned player.
Getting the redesign to work can take some time. You need to get the JU version of the rom, the rom patch from the SM Redesign Site and a patcher. I use a Powerbook G4, so Mac users you can do this too. For legal resons, I cannot host the actual rom, so it is up to you to find it for yourself. It is out there, you might have to search for a while, but it worth the effort. ]]>
Typical Planet in Sins, with a Research Station and a couple defenders
A typical planet in Sins, with a research station and a couple of defenders.
Some people may dismiss the game due to the lack of story. They may think that this game is simply an RTS with no campaign mode, just skirmish. While that is true, it is true in the same way that Civilization or a Total War game has no story mode. The games are so massive and epic that each game is a story unto itself; even the smallest map is still at least a 5 hour game.
Sins pulls off being an RTS/Civ hybrid by simply being a very slow RTS. It takes a long time to move ships around the map. It takes a long time for large fleet battles to be resolved, or to bombard a planet. But you are always thankful for that downtime, because that is when you are busy upgrading your planets, researching new technologies, and creating new fleets. The slow movement of the fleet makes gathering intelligence crucial. Your front lines are often very large, too large to mount a massive defense at each front-line planet. You better know where your enemy is gathering. If you are on the attack, you should look at where the weak spots are, because it will be slow to adjust once you commit a big portion of your fleet.
Two Fleets Ready to Rumble
Two Fleets Ready to Rumble
A unique aspect of the game is the way the maps work. The maps consist of 10 or more planets, in 1 or more star systems. Ships can only move between planets, they cannot just move anywhere in space. (The word "planet" is used loosely; the game defines anything with significant gravity as a planet.) The significance of this is that the maps can be randomly generated and extremely fun due to all of the natural choke points. The game does ship with plenty of custom made maps, but the ability to create fun random maps is huge.
The combat in this game is pretty to watch, but it is no Company of Heroes or even Starcraft where an effective micro strategy can win the day against huge odds. If the fleets are fairly even in power, micro may help, but the winner will mostly be determined by fleet composition and who has the better capital ships.
The game will run fine on a modest system, the game can be played with all effects turned completely off and it will not affect gameplay at all. Most of the time I found myself zoomed out to get a good view of the overall map. At that level your units just appear as symbols anyway.
Zoomed Out View of a Small Map. Note that each planet is connected to 2-4 other planets, creating natural choke points.
A zoomed out view of a small map. Note that each planet is connected to 2-4 other planets, creating natural choke points.
Made by Ironclad Games, the game ships with no annoying copy-protection, and you are only asked to verify your game when connecting to the servers for game patches. I also assume that you would need to do this if you were to connect to other players for multiplayer games, but I am not sure. This is a fantastic system which every single PC publisher should follow.
I have not explored the multiplayer too much, but I know that each multiplayer game can be saved. That means an epic 4 player game against 4 AIs that will last 20 hours can be played in as many chunks as you want.
About the only negatives that I can think of are that the technology trees are too short, even a short game will maximize those trees. Also, the game has a steep learning curve. The manual and tutorials are not nearly enough to learn the game. You need to basically play a few simple games and click around to get the hang of everything. And lastly, I would like for the use of micro to play a more important role in resolving battles.
Wesside Score: 9.5/10
IGN Score: 8.9/10]]>
Source]]>
However, Zack and Wiki is something completely different. First of all, it isn't quite an adventure game. It is a puzzle game that has a loose, and really annoying, story wrapped around it. Of course you have a rival gang of pirates seeking the same treasure and they intervene in your path at times...but they never actually effect the puzzles for as long as I have played it. Maybe they come in a little heavier towards the end of the game but I am through 8hrs of what IGN claims should be a 15hr game your first time through and the rival gang hasn't been a factor. Make your own assumptions on that one.
Secondly the way in which you control Zack in the game didn't strike me as overly intuitive: you use only the Wii-mote to play the game. You want to go somewhere? Point at it, press A and Zack will scurry to that point. Sounds easy enough, but the point and clicking can get a little off at times and Zack will back track despite your attempts at having him move in the opposite direction. It works well almost all the time though, which is a plus. The minor hitches are forgivable. Also within the control structure, there are several items available to you that use wii-mote gestures without going overboard with them. Again, some of these gestures can be flakey but what can you expect? Most developers are still getting used to programming games that use Wii's infrared control base.
Lastly is the hint system. This is by far the most useless part of the game. I was literally stuck on one puzzle for several times through, using the hint system as I was supposed to, and the game kept giving me "hints" on things I already knew how to do! Thanks for letting me waste my time purchasing Oracle credits, using them in the game in order to show me fun little animations that give me no clue into the part of the puzzle I need to solve.
"Hey look! There is a better game just over the horizon!"
Ok, so what is good about the game? The puzzles aren't overly difficult but do progressively become more challenging. I didn't even try to use any hints until I was through the mid point of the game and probably could have continues not using them had I not been lazy. The cell-shading type environments ala Zelda: The Wind Waker look very very nice, lots of detail, particles, heat distortions, freezing breath; all look really good. It is kind of cutesy and cartoon-ish, but they did want to target a wide demographic. There isn't much for voice over work either, but who cares? There isn't a deep storyline anyway. I also don't see too much replay value as once I know how to finish the puzzles, getting a higher score and lower time doesn't really matter much.
So in the end, Z&W is a good game. Nothing epic and timeless by any means, but if you have a few nights a week where you like to challenge yourself to a few low-stress puzzles, Zack & Wiki will probably be for you.But hey, for $30? These complaints are minor!
-Chris
IGN Score: 9.0 overall. My score: 8.0]]>