Opinions on Everything

Brief, Scattershot Thoughts on Uncharted 2

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:53:53 -0500

Great graphics, that goes without explanation if you’ve seen any screenshots or videos. Though I really had a problem with the character’s eyes in the cutscenes. It wasn’t that they were all dead/Polar Express/Uncanny Valley-ish it’s that they were too shiny and the irises seemed really big or just not a natural colour. It seems like a really nitpicky thing but it took me out of the story until I would just start staring at how amazing the fabric on someone’s jacket looked or the camera zoomed out far enough that I didn’t notice it as much.

Sometimes frustrating gameplay and that’s why I never finished Uncharted 1 but for some reason something felt different in this one and made me less frustrated. Though a lot of times during the game I’d just wait around (or purposely die a few times) for the ‘hint’ to pop-up for where to go or what to do and then immediately feel stupid that I needed that hint. It ended up boiling down to, ‘Ohhh, that’s what a climbable object looks like in this level’. I guess I was too accustomed to the inFamous style of being able to climb anything.

Also sometimes the shooting sections went too long between checkpoints. ‘Enter the area, ok, about 10 enemies, carefully pick them off. Ok, 10 more enemies come rushing in, cool, let’s do this. Ok, three guys with body armour and shotguns show up and one got behind me, ah fuck I’m dead. Respawning, goddammit it put me back at the beginning…’ repeat until I’m begging the game, ‘Oh please don’t put me at the start again.’ That happened all too often.

Multiplayer has some good ideas but nothing worth tearing me away from my MW2 addiction. In the lobby you get a choice between two levels to play and have a little election to see which one actually get played, that’s a pretty neat feature. It was nice to see the platforming and melee elements from the single-player game intact in the multiplayer game, wasn’t expecting that which was a nice surprise when trying to find a way to get to an upper level and was amazed that I could climb a wall and not nice when I was getting my neck broken from behind by an enemy. And there starts the problems. The actual shooting didn’t feel right which meant I ended up just running around hoping to melee people (and dying, repeatedly) . Also, at peak time there was only approximately 7000 people in the multiplayer (whereas there could be twenty times that in MW2) so it seemed to take a while to find a good match.

Hm, not as brief as I intended but wanted to write that out since I just played it. My recommendation is to rent it and play it on an easy difficulty just to see the decent story and awesome visuals.

New Fall Shows That I Love And You Should Watch

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:57:00 -0400

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As a huge TV nerd, fall is my favourite time of the year because there’s so many new shows and most of the shows I love come back (though it also causes problems in terms of scheduling) so I decided to write a post about the new fall season. This post will be about the brand spankin’ new shows this year that I’m excited about and think the millions of readers of this site should watch or at least give a decent shot.

Glee
This is the one show that I cannot shut up about and that my friends will not stop making fun of me for watching and loving. But fuck them all, I love Glee and I’m proud of it. Glee is about the hilarious trials and tribulations of a high school glee club, its members, and the faculty surrounding it. Being about a glee club, of course it has a few musical numbers per episode which are usually quite entertaining and fun whether the song is a Queen or Journey cover or a musical number from Cabaret. I have downloaded a few of the songs from iTunes and am eagerly awaiting the first album (which I believe is out in November). The musical numbers are performed by a superb ensemble cast that all have their moments. The most recent episode is #5 so you have some catching up to do if you decide to jump on the bandwagon and if you’re already on the bandwagon: good for you, you like good things!

Community
My love of this new show can be summed up with: Joel McCale is awesome. I’d like to say that it’s not just him but it’s hard to think of someone else to play such a likeable asshole. And without that likeable asshole, the whole show would probably fall apart despite all the side characters and actors being great. Chevy Chase stands out, as the older eccentric guy going back to school who is also a little bit sexist and racist, along with Danny Pudi as Abed who has Asberger’s (as a joke in the first episode commented, “hehe, ass burgers”) and often references TV shows or movies (a funny example of which is in the pilot where he recites a speech from The Breakfast Club). It is quite funny, it has a fantastic cast, and there’s less story and more just funny here but it’s still great. It’s also supported by some great guest stars so far: the Spanish teacher played by Ken Jeong and the accounting (I think? not really sure what he taught in his episode, which was the point) teacher played by John Michael Higgins (you might know him from the Christopher Guest movies or Wayne Jarvis the professional attorney from Arrested Development). The third episode is the most recent but being a half hour show, that’s not much catching up to do.

Modern Family
The funniest new show of the year so far and I’ve only seen two episodes so that might change but screw it, I have my opinion and I’m sticking to it. I laughed out loud when watching the premiere of this show more than Glee or Community combined; it just had so many funny moments in it and ones that have great staying and quotability power (I’ll be quoting “Why the face” and “I can’t turn it off, it’s who I am” for a while). I was worried after such a good first episode that the second episode would show a huge quality drop off but it didn’t; it had just as many funny, quotable moments as the first and though there was a little bit of a sappy speech towards the end, it didn’t falter. It seems like a premise that has a lot of legs. It’s about three interconnected families: one traditional, one older man married to a younger woman of another race with a son from a previous marriage, and a gay couple that has adopted an Asian baby so they likely won’t run out of ideas for a long time since there’s just so many stories and angles they could approach it from. It just aired it’s second episode so it will be easy to catch up.

FlashForward
This show was HILARIOUS…well, not so much (though there was a pretty funny scene in the second episode involving blacking out in a bathroom). This post has been talking about all comedies so far so I’m just used to it. I’m a big Lost fanatic and as such was pretty interested in this show ever since it started being touted as the next Lost. It also doesn’t hurt that it is based on a book that I read and enjoyed years ago. That may cause some problems for me because if it follows the book i know I’ll enjoy it but I kinda know what happens and if it doesn’t it might not be as good a story. The story in the show is that everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and seventeen seconds and sees their future (six months to be exact). With a premise like that it has both great character story lines and an overall story arch, just like Lost. It also has a large ensemble cast with a familiar face from Lost (PENNEH!) but my favourite cast member has to be John Cho, I’ve been a fan of his for a while now and think what may or may not happen to his character is quite interesting. I’m not sure if it will have the the same culture around it (e.g. tons of theory sites, podcasts, etc.) as Lost or if it will even be as good but I really like it so far and you should give it a chance if you haven’t.

My Late review of Drag Me to Hell

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:03:00 -0400

So, I finally saw Drag Me to Hell and I have to say, I was less than impressed. I was excited to see this movie. I’ve been a big fan of the Evil Dead series since I was a kid and saw Army of Darkness for the first time on First Choice (now known as The Movie Network).

When I heard Sam Raimi had a new movie coming out I was really excited. I obviously didn’t see it in theatres, but that’s another article I need to write about. I just don’t do theatres. Regardless of that though, I got ahold of the pre-release DVD and sat down with my girlfriend to watch it.

She didn’t want to watch it, but that’s expected. Women don’t normally like movies like that, but she watched it anyway.

From start to finish, I neither laughed or felt scared. At least in Sam Raimi’s other horror movies you find it kind of funny, but this was just…. blah. There was a scene with the main character’s nose bleeding profusely over the bank manager. Lame. The was the fight scene with the old gypsy woman. Super lame. When the demon took control of the body of the Spanish Dude. Extra lame.

Speaking of that scene, it reminded me of that scene in Evil Dead when the demon is in the air dancing to an Irish jig. This scene was clearly copied in Drag Me to hell.

Anyways, that movie was stupid and recycled. I guess it might just be me. I got my hopes up for the movie to be “Sam Raimi” and that’s what I got. I guess my tastes have changed and my love for Evil Dead isn’t that it’s awesome, but it’s just nostalgic. Oh well.

Why your XBox 360 sucks

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:27:00 -0400

Alright, so it’s only fair that I pick on the giant of the 3. The XBox 360. Since November 22, 2005 the XBox 360 has been a powerhouse of a console. They are currently the top selling console on the market. That might change now that the PS3 has the same $299 price point. Although, Microsoft could reduce their prices to retaliate. After all, the XBox 360 is a cheap piece of crap. Here’s why:

1. The Red Ring of Death

When a console has been out for 4 years like this one has, it’s hard to believe that such a “good product” (based on sales and fanoyism) can be such a piece of shit. How come they started shipping a product that wasn’t ready? The PS3 doesn’t have this problem and it’s got more horsepower under the hood! The statistics don’t lie. Look at this:

A new survey published in Game Informer’s print edition indicates the Xbox 360 failure rate has climbed to a shocking 54.2%. The magazine surveyed nearly 5000 readers, asking them about their experience dealing with broken consoles.

Here are their findings:

Console failure rate
Xbox 360 – 54.2%
Playstation 3 – 10.6%
Wii – 6.8%

Read more stats here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/101/1014486p1.html

2. The Controller

Most 360 fanboys will argue this one to the death during a console debate. The controller for the 360 is garbage. It’s bulky, too heavy, and in all honesty, not much different than the original XBox controller. Take a look for yourself:

It’s not that much of a difference. I know the controller for the PS3 hasn’t changed in forever, but that’s because PS3 fanboys don’t care. They like the controller. ALL 360 people admit to the first controller sucking. It doesn’t look like much has changed. Also, no sixaxis :P

3. Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD

OH SNAP! This one is gonna haunt 360 fanboys forever. The XBox 360 got owned in the HD Format war. The 360 doesn’t even come installed with HD-DVD. You had to buy it as a peripheral. This makes it cost the same as the PS3 and the resolution wasn’t that great on HD-DVD and it failed anyways. If you bought this add-on, you would have shelled out money for nothing.

Because I don’t wanna write a summary for everything, here’s a list of other reasons why the 360 sucks:

Most 360 exclusives are on PC!
You have to buy a Wi-Fi adaptor (Wii and PS3 come installed)
You have to buy an inter cooler (The 360 heats up quickly)
You have to pay for LIVE
It’s more expensive after adding everything to it that it should have
It has an extremely large power supply
It has a disc tray. WTF! No one uses those anymore!
The XBox 360 has a locked hard drive, unlike that of the PS3
Halo is outdated!

The boys over at Microsoft should have put more time and thought into their console like Nintendo and Sony did, instead of trying to get their console out before everyone else, because it clearly is garbage. Now that you know that, and hopefully it’s not too late, you have no reason to waste your money! You’ve been warned.

Why your PS3 sucks

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:01:00 -0400

Face it. The thing sucks. I have one and cry every time I turn it on. I suppose it’s come in handy as games started coming out, but I really just bought it as a cheap Blu-Ray player. At the time I bought it, $399 was the price point and that was as cheap as Blu-Ray Players got. Sure, games started coming out that got me interested, but no real exclusives to get me behind it enough to really mean it when I tell people it’s the superior console. It is, but it isn’t at the same time. Here’s why:

1. Price: No so much anymore, actually. For the sake of argument and history, we’ll make the argument. The PS3 was the most expensive console on the market. Sure, it’s a cheap Blu-Ray Player, but people just weren’t making the move to Blu-Ray anyways. They still aren’t. Read this. No one was buying the PS3 and they were instead flocking over to the XBox 360. This allowed more money to be put into development for more games.

2. Games, Games, Games: Sorry, but no one’s gonna flock to a console when one of your biggest games is Little Big Planet. Sure, the concept is good, but I think people will have more fun with Left for Dead or Gears of War. Playstation has no PS3 exclusive games worth making you shell out for the cost. The PS3 has been too expensive for too long that there is no development behind it and the the boys at Microsoft have clearly taken advantage of that.

3. Online Play: The online experience flat out sucks. For the cost of it, $0, it’s actually outstanding. If you’re lucky you will connect to someone almost seamlessly and play a game before getting booted after 20 minutes. That’s not a bad record. The XBox 360, even though you have to pay a yearly fee of about $50, has waaaaay better online play. You can chat while loading a game, and even boot a gameduring that chat.

4. Graphics: Now, here’s where you might be wondering, why is he complaining about the graphics? Everyone knows the PS3 has the best graphics on the market right now! That may be true, but developers are having so many issues creating games that they’re not using the full potential of the machine. In fact, development for the XBox 360 has moved so far, so quickly, that it actually has superior graphics. Crazy eh?

So, there you go! The PS3 is a piece of garbage and you might as well throw it there, because you and your PS3 would be better off there.

Now, don’t think this is an XBox 360 fan boy or Nintendo Wii fan boy article, cuz it’s not. I made that clear with my article on why the Wii sucks. So, the XBox 360 isn’t safe, and I got those sons of bitches in my sight for my next article!

Watch This Show: Supernatural

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:53:00 -0400

For my third TV show recommendation post I am going to discuss Supernatural which is one of my favourite TV shows on right now. It just started its fifth, and possibly final, season. I say possibly final because this is the last season of a 5-season story arc and though they’ve teased us with the possibility of doing more the creators have said it would probably be five seasons and no more. Supernatural is the story of the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, as they battle monsters, demons, ghosts, and anything “supernatural”.

Usually a single episode falls into one of two categories: either its an “arc” episode about the overall seasons long story, or it’s a standalone episode which could also be referred to as monster-of-the-week. What makes this show so good is that whichever type of episode it is, it’s always entertaining. The arc-stories are epic and the standalone stories, which do tie into the arc sometimes, are interesting. The creators also really know how to play upon fans’ expectations and the fandom surrounding the show.

A great example of this is in the most recent season 5 premiere where a character is introduced who is writing what is known in the fan community as a “wincest” story. Or basically fanfiction about Sam and Dean having sex. Yes, people on the internet do that and yes, the makers of the show decided to show it and make fun of it on the show.

The music is also a great part of the show. Usually the previously on is set to some fucking awesome classic rock song like Thunderstruck or Carry On Wayward Son (which I started playing when I started writing this review, for inspiration) and that just gets you pumped for the episode to come. The character of Dean is obsessed with classic rock and that gives the creators the excuse to play some awesome music. I also bring this up because I wish they would release a huge, official soundtrack for the show but for now I’ll just have to deal with the songlists fans have written.

I guess the great thing is the mix this show brings. It has great comedy moments and pure comedy episodes like one last year about old-time movie monsters (e.g., the wolfman, dracula, etc) killing people. It has good action and special effects, and some gore. It can also be genuinely scary, which is very rare for a TV show.

So, go forth and watch this show. Get on the bandwagon before it ends. Seasons 1-4 are on DVD right now and Season 5 just premiered last night.

Play This Game: Trials HD

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:11:00 -0400

Trials HD is a new XBox arcade game in which you ride a motorcycle through various obstacle courses and try to finish as quick as possible, with as few faults (retries) as possible, and/or perhaps even just try to finish the course. I mention the last one because this game is hard, REALLY hard.

It’s really rare for me to like games that are extremely difficult as most of the time for me gaming should be fun and relaxing and to say that Trials HD is challenging would be an understatement. You get 500 faults (or tries from a checkpoint and checkpoints are not spread that far apart) and a maximum of 30 minutes to get through a level (where a flawless time might be something along the lines of 1 minute) and you do hit those limits on some levels. But I guess what makes that palatable is that the difficulty ramps up quite gradually. Tracks are sorted into beginner, easy, medium, hard, and extreme. And for extra challenge there are medals for each track (where gold is a quick flawless run) so that adds more levels of difficulty and more replayabilty. It doesn’t really get extremely difficult until hard but medium will start giving you a bit of a challenge on some levels.

The good thing is leaderboard replays. If you’re having trouble with a certain track, you can go to the leaderboard replay of that level and it not only shows someone doing it but also graphically shows the button presses and analog stick movements that the person is doing. The only thing I wish is that you’d be able to jump into the replays while in the level (you can only watch them while not playing a level), then you could come up to a hard obstacle that kicks your ass and immediately go into the replay and see how it’s done. But that might ruin a bit of the challenge.

Just going through the tracks is not the only thing to do in the game. There’s also tournaments which are groups of levels that must be done together without being able to restart from the beginning; getting good medals in these is extremely challenging because usually to get gold in a track it’s on about my hundredth restart of that level but to get gold in a tournament I’d have to do it first time through. Another section of the game is the skill games which are like mingames; there are skill games in which you have to crash and break as many bones as possible, or ride doing a wheelie as far as possible. Finally, there’s a track creator. I’ve not tried this out much so I won’t talk about it and I’ve also not played any custom tracks because it seems as if you can only share tracks among your friends which I wish wasn’t the case.

Trials HD is epitome of a simple to pick up, difficult to master game and this is due to the controls. The main controls are only really gas, brake and lean. But the other buttons you’ll be using quite a bit due to the game’s difficulty are the buttons to bailout, restart at beginning of level and go back to last checkpoint.

I’ve been playing this game quite a bit over the past few days and while I doubt I’ll ever finish it, I still feel it was completely worth it. Trials HD is available on the XBox arcade marketplace. If you don’t have an XBox there are also a couple PC games if you want to check it out.

Why Digg needs to be more bipartisan

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:19:00 -0400

Some things you should know. I’m a Canadian. I live with 3 major Federal parties existing. The Liberal Party, The Conservative Party, and The NDP. If you count The Bloc, then there’s 4. You can only vote for them in Quebec,which is only a province. Why can you vote for them as a Federal representation is beyond me.

For the sake of this article, though, I’m going to focus on American Politics.

Anyways, I pride myself on being a bipartisan voter. I think we should all take in to account the opinions of all parties involved in an election. To only listen to the voices of The Democrats or The Republicans makes you an uninformed voter and you shouldn’t be voting. You have the right to vote and the right to vote unintelligently, but that makes you a fool. Sorry, but it’s true.

In the past year, these are the top stories on Digg.com under the politics sections:

Top in “Political News” over the last 365 days:

Barack Obama Officialy Becomes 44th American President: 25,106 Diggs
Legalization of Marijuana Bill in California: 8,659 Diggs
Undeniable proof that Arkansas is a backwards hellhole!!!: 7,965 Diggs
Tina Fey As Sarah Palin: Katie Couric SNL Skit (VIDEO): 7,743 Diggs
Whitehouse.gov - before and after: 6,943 Diggs
Barney Frank Confronts Woman Comparing Obama to Hitler: 6,495 Diggs

Top in “Political Opinion” over the last 365 days:

Hayden Panettiere PSA: Vote for McCain: 7,990 Diggs
Legalize It: 7,493 Diggs
US Military threatens to kill pet of deployed US Soldier: 7,129 Diggs
Someone predicted this economic collapse A year ago, who?: 6,561 Diggs
EPIC Obama ‘08 - Vote For Hope Video: 6,037 Diggs
Democracy is… (PIC): 5,721 Diggs
Liar…??: 5,506 Diggs

This is all pro-democrat propaganda. I really do mean propaganda because the stories on Digg are not representing the thoughts of sound-minded individuals. According to Digg:

“…we’re here to provide a place where people collectively determine the value of content. In doing so, we’re changing the way people consume information online.”

This is still the case, but unfortunately the majority of people on digg are turning it into a liberalist machine to further digg’s political agenda.

Fox news does the same thing. All the media pumping out of there is just going against the democrats by spinning real information to suit their needs. They use O’Reilly to intensify the already held beliefs of those watching Fox News. The people that watch this channel don’t consume their media from anywhere else. They may, once in a while, go to CNN, but that’s not much better.

This doesn’t sound like a sound-minded person, does it? No. Digg always has, and will continue to pump out stories of Fox Pundits’ opinions and state why they’re wrong. There’s nothing wrong with this, but you have to show the other side. As soon as the Liberal agenda is attacked, digg retaliates and plays the victim game.

This is unfair and unjust. Digg is doing nothing wrong here, since there are no editors. The community needs to look at themselves from another light and stop praising themselves for being “liberal”, “hip”, or “with-it” and take other point of view into their minds and maybe promote that to the front page, or all the kids that are visiting digg for the first time (the 13-17 year-olds) will get an uninformed sight of what’s happening in the world.

Instead of talking about it, do something. Give all voices a chance. Stop patting yourself on the back.

See This Movie: Gamer

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:35:00 -0400

I haven’t written anything in a while but now I’m trying to force myself to sit down and write at least a little bit a day so eventually, even if I don’t finish an article every day, I’ll at least be working toward a goal. For my first article in quite a while I’d like to tell you about a movie called Gamer.

Gamer is about a future in which people can control other people though nanotechnology implanted in the brain. This technology was created by a Bill Gates-esque super-billionaire named Castle (Michael C. Hall) and is used in two “games”. One is a Sims (or Second Life or Playstation Home) like game called “Society” in which you control an avatar (who is a real person) and you interact with other people controlling real people avatars. The other game is called “Slayers”, think first-person-shooter, in which death row inmates allow themselves to be controlled for the opportunity to gain their freedom. Survive 30 games you go free, but of course no one has ever done that. Kable (Gerard Butler) is getting close though.

The movie has an interesting plot and lots of action scenes. The problem is the plot is more interesting than entertaining at times and sometimes the action can be annoying. The action is shot in really shaky camera style, too close, with lots of quick cuts and when in a game there’s lots of superimposed digital effects too often to remind us as if we had forgotten that this was a game even if the stakes are real. The plot is interesting even if at times the plot scenes, as opposed to the action scenes, drag on a bit.

The plot is helped by a great cast. I’m a big fan of Michael C. Hall who is in full evil genius mode here. And is it just me or is Gerard Butler in everything right now? There was even a preview for another of his movies before this one. I can see why too, he’s a good star. Terry Crews (a.k.a. Cheeseburger Eddy) is also in it but it’s kind of weird seeing him in a one-note serious bad guy role when I’m used to seeing him in really funny comedic roles. I’d mention the rest of the supporting cast but it’d be redundant since no one does a bad job.

The real standout though is Michael C. Hall. I only wish he was in it more because the better scenes in the movie usually involved him (as did my favourite scene in the movie which I absolutely will not give away but to those that saw it you know what it is, it involves a song).

I wish the action was shot better because if it was this would be a ringing endorsement. As it stands now I’m still recommending the viewing of it but you won’t be missing much if you wait until you can rent it or something.

iPhone App Review #4: µMonitor

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:36:00 -0400

Here’s µMonitor for the iPhone, which was recently rejected by the appstore after the “AppStore Gods” reviewed it for 4 months or so. According to Apple:

“We’ve reviewed µMonitor and determined that we cannot post this version of your application to the App Store at this time because this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”

Basically, they don’t want to support third party apps that allow the use of BitTorrent. Thankfully, if your iPhone is jailbroken, you get the app. It’s already available through a quick search in Cydia.

Ain’t she sweet? This is one of my new favorite apps. The sweetest part of this app is being able to start and stop torrents remotely over 3G or EDGE on-the-go.

There’s really nothing to this app, except for what’s already been explained.

Unless you’re familiar with setting up the WebUI on µTorrent, I suggest you start here or use The Google.

Once you’re set up, though, it’s super-sweet. This is an awesome app and probably my favorite app not on the actual app store.

PS3 Firmware 3.0 coming September 1st. TOMORROW!

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:13:00 -0400

Basically, the PS3 3.0 firmware will be adding a New & Improved Information Board, Status Indicator, better Friends List, PlayStation Store Shortcuts, Personalization, and a trophy update. I’m not gonna get into what they all are. You can do that yourself, by using the google. It’s not hard. If you’re lazy, go here.

It souds like good news. First, Sony announces a price cut to $299 and releases a PS3 Slim. Now they release the PS3 3.0 Firmware. Good news. Right? Maybe. Watch this video for the PS3 announcement, then read on.

It looks like all they’re updating are aesthetic features. As far as I’m concerned, the only cool feature is the new status indicator. It’s nice to have your online friends easily visible, along with your message count. Also, the ticker being there (always visible) is good.

Here’s what they need to release tomorrow:

Cross-Game Voice-Chat
View your Trophies Online (Trophy/Web Synchronization)
Better AVI Playback
Game Lobbies
PS2 Emulation through Software.

It’s gonna be a bad tomorrow if we don’t see some improvements on the in-game aspect of the PS3. I’s good to have this nice home screen and all, but if the in-game doesn’t improve, then I guess the Xbox 360 is gonna get a boost. We don’t need that.

Update (09/01/2009):

In the new friends list, your Playstation Network friends will appear in a slightly redesigned format and messages will now be viewable from each of your friends’ respective profiles.

The Status Indicator which can be found in the top right corner, consists of your icon, friends’ icons, and number of online friends, message icon which lets you know if you received a new message, a scrolling ticker which displays the latest PSN news, and if you press the “PS” button then the Battery Life indicator will stop covering the clock.

The dynamic themes take your screen to a whole new level as they incorporate animated objects into the background.

Other additions include a constantly-updated news section to keep up with new games and news, news shortcuts directly to PlayStation Store under both Game and Video categories so that you can access the latest content quickly and easily and new PS3 Trophies Showcasing options to show off your hard earned trophies.

The update also gives game developers the ability to modify how they display trophies for addon-content. PS3 Firmware 3.0 features a new Xross Media Bar, and according to Sony the XMB is now “more intuitive”.

The PS3 Firmware 3.0 also gives users the possibility to control the video playback meaning that they can fast forward, rewind, and watch in slow motion. Another new feature is the simultaneous audio output across connectors which will be found very helpful by most gamers.
Read more: http://www.devicemag.com/2009/09/01/ps3-firmware-update-30-now-available-ps3-update-300-brings-dynamic-themes/#ixzz0PtiKYpVh

iPhone App Review #3: Facebook 3.0

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:55:00 -0400

So, there you have it. Facebook 3.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch! Isn’t it pretty!? It’s actually really nice. The home screen has been completely revamped. As you can see, all the main features ofFacebook are nicely laid out. As you start receiving updates in your News Feed, Inbox, or whatever, you get a nice little notification letting you know about theupdates. Unfortunately, this version of the app doesn’t support push, but according to Facebook for iPhone’s Facebook page, “The one feature everyone is asking for, Push Notifications, is in development but it won’t make it into 3.0. You can expect it in a 3.1 update later this summer.” It’s good news for the end of the summer, but not now. I guess it’s a good thing. With all these push notification apps coming out, we’re gonna need to see some better battery management upgrades coming out in iPhone 3.1.

A second page, and possibly more, has been added to the home screen. Here, you can add and remove “bookmarks”. You can add a fan page you currently subscribe to or a contact you would like to gain quick access to. It’s safe to assume that in the future, the ability to add applications into the mix.

A really interesting feature has been added to the friends list part of the app. A little telephone icon now shows up beside the name of the contact (that has made that information available) and you can call them or send an SMS.

Other features added are 3GS video uploading, upload and manage photo albums, zooming in on photos, and you can now visit links posted in your News Feed via the built in web browser.

So, there you go. Upgrade your Facebook app for free at the iTunes App Store.

iPhone App Review #2: eBuddy

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:10:00 -0400

eBuddy is a free fully featured instant messaging (that doesn’t contain ads) application for the iPhone. It stands alone from other apps like IM+, BeeJive, andPalringo in that it offers full access to all the services that they offer (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk, and Facebook Chat) and includes push notification. The instant messaging apps that come with push notification have a price range of $4.99-$9.99, but they don’t really offer much more (in terms of functionality) than eBuddy does. They offer more on the side of aesthetics for their price point.

eBuddy comes across as a clean and easy to navigate instant messaging app. It takes very little loading time (even on a 2G) and responds quickly inside the app. Once loaded, though, you have to register for an eBuddy account (if you haven’t already). It’s not very intrusive. Once it’s done you don’t have to worry about it again. All it needs is a login ID, password, and your age.

Push works as you would expect it to. It runs in the background and whenever you get an instant message, you’ll be notified like you would a text message. The only downside of push in the eBuddy app is that the longest you can leave it running when closed is 30 minutes. Most apps have a longer time like 24 hours or 3 days, but not this one. I guess, cuz it’s free….

Nothing special in the settings menu. You can sort your buddy list by name, group, or account. Notification options using sound and vibration. It has one feature called “shake to buzz”. This is basically the same as ‘nudging’ on MSN.

So, there you have it. It’s a great IM app for the iPhone if you’re looking for something free and well made.

Lost: Season 6 Theories

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:55:00 -0400

Quite a bit of time (103 days) has gone by since Lost: Season 5 ended and everybody wants to know what happened with the bomb. Did it go off? Were the Losties transported back to 2008? Does nothing happen? Was a rift in time created which causes alternate realities where the Losties can possibly meet up with each other, creating a hole in the space-time continuum which causes the entire universe to implode on itself? Until Season 6 starts up (early 2010), we’ll actually not know. Many theories can arise, but which is actually the right one? Which makes the most sense?

I’ve scoured the internet endlessly trying to find the best and most plausible theories and came up with these. Here are the 3 best theories for what may happen in Season 6 of Lost.

1. Conflicting Realities: Two, to be exact. In this theory, the bomb goes off as planned by The Losties and two realities are created. One is the one we know with our friends on the Island and the other is what Jack had planned on happening (The plane landing in LAX).Unfortunately, in the timeline where the bomb goes off, anyone close to the bomb dies. Their characters still exist in the other reality though. Since Desmond is not on the island, and he’s a constant, his consciousness will switch between both versions of himself. This theory can get really confusing, but once the gap has been closed between the two realities, it will become a tale of Good vs. Evil. More can be read about this theory here.

2. What Happened, Happened — the Moustrap Theory: What happened, happened. No reboot. No alternate timeline. Jughead always exploded. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin — they will all survive the Incident. But they won’t rejoin Dharma and they won’t flash back to where they once belonged. They will have to get back to the future the way we all do — one day at a time — but they will not age because Jacob’s touch “Alpertized” them (they just haven’t lived long enough to see that they don’t physically age yet) and they will go through their lives from 1977 to 2004 with a foreknowledge of what is to come. They will be rescued from the angry Dharma mob by Richard Alpert and the hostiles and they will be recruited into the “what lies in shadow of the statue” club. In the first half of season six, we will learn that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, and Sayid are the main people setting the stage for the oceanic 815 crash — even to the point where they ‘encourage’ and ‘manipulate’ certain events to get people on the plane who need to be on the plane (even their younger selves). But that’s just the first half of Season 6. There is still the overall victory that must be won — the final battle — the loophole that must be closed — the war that must be won. The consequences to Ben’s loophole killing of Jacob and the showdown with un-Locke/MIB and whatever else is going on with this mysterious island and the smoke monster and whatnot. The balance between yin (Jacob) and yang (MIB) must be restored, and Jacob has found a way to out-loophole the loophole — Jack and co. to the rescue (“they’re coming…”). Read more about The Mousetrap theory here.

3. Reset: The bomb goes off and once the explosion destroys the energy source, our Losties are ‘reset’ back to the present.Everyone else in proximity dies, or is badly injured, but those further away live. The radiation from the bomb spreads throughout the island and all Dharma members remaining on the island must wear hazmat suits, and inject themselves while working outdoors to avoid the lethal amounts of radiation. Construction on the Swan is finally completed. However, it’s purpose is now soley to keep the massive electromagnetic energy at bay. The hatch is marked ‘Quarantine’ to remind the ‘button pushers’ to stay indoors, or risk infection, and women are no longer able to have children if they conceive on the island. Bottom line: This is the incident, and this is what always happened. Read more here. So there we go. Three completely plausible theories. Which one do you side with? Either way, the outcome is gonna be one excellent season of Lost, and I, for one, cannot wait.

PS3 Slim Announced!

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:39:00 -0400

Unless you’re living under a rock, you will have by now already found out about the PS3 Slim. If you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself.

Apparently, this new PS3 will be sold for $100 less for a new price point of $299.99 (USD). This is great for people who are in the market for a PS3, but shitty news for people like me who already own one.

According to Engadget:

“The buttons in the front are now physical and actually “click” in to function. The PS logo above the disc drive does not rotate for vertical use, and yes, the hard drive is swappable — as you can see from the pictures, there’s a screw on the bottom, hidden by a panel, that lets you take off part of the front for access. We’ve also lined it up against our standard, fatty PS3, and we gotta say, it’s noticeably lighter.”

Also, it will have a 120 GBHard drive, a Duel Shock Controller (The original PS3 only came with a six-axis controller), and HDMI support. It sounds better than my current PS3! I only got the 40 GB hard drive!

Surely, this can’t be as good as the older model. Game developers have been screaming at Sony to reduce the price of the console so they could sell more games. The current price of a blank Blu-Ray disc is around $8, depending where you get it from. They’re definitely not cheap. It sounds to me like Sony may have skimped on the hardware. This may help them sell more consoles in the short term, but may be bad for them in the long term. The PS3 packs a lot of heat, and is definately better than an XBox 360 or a Wii (Don’t get me started on the Wii). Will the same be true for the PS3 Slim? I say no, but I guess only time will tell. I just don’t wanna see any Blue Rings of Death. This is supposed to be PS3’s year!

Why your Nintendo Wii sucks

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:36:00 -0400

Before I really get into this, you should know that I own a Wii. It’s been sitting in my TV stand cupboard for about 8 months now.

I play my PS3 mostly now. It has similar titles like Call of Duty: World at War, Rock Band, etc… But, once the novelty of that “WiiMote”wears off , you end up with a cheap piece of plastic that you give to your mother because she thinks it’s better than going to Curves! Sure, it’s cheaper, but she’s bound to throw that wiimote through the Fucking TV screen.

The one thing that bugs me about the Wii’s online system are Friend Codes.FriendCodes are these little serial numbers you get on your Nintendo Wii that you exchange with your friends to play gamestogether. Itsoundssimple, but they make it as if they don’t want youplayingonline, because no one’s gonna want to remember some 12 digit long code so you can play fucking Mario Kart! How about a Lobby to jump into where you can meet people online? Or maybe a previously played list of people you can add to later? Abolishing these codes and having a nickname like Sweetguy_69 (the one I use to pick up chicks online) would obviously make more sense. I guess Nintendo doesn’t have any common sense since they didn’t release a working product to begin with.

After thenoveltyof me waving my wiimote around wore off, I bought my PS3 and was thrown back into the world of controller gaming. Using buttons and joysticks was great to get back to. Let’s face it. The Wii is a novelty. Period. If it had better graphics to fall back on, I’d be singing a different tune, but it doesn’t. Even the games on the virtual console are just recycled classics that you can get on yourcomputerwith enough common sense and a torrentclient.

After all this is said and done, there’s no fun with this shitty piece of plastic. Aside from getting drunk and playing bowling or golf with one of your friends, there’s nothing else to do with the Wii. Who sits at home and jerks off a WiiMote alone? No one!

Furthermore, why did they release an addition to their existing product tat [perfectedit? They added this fucking attachment to thebottomof the wiimote to make it more precise? WTF! They should have done this when they released the product! Holy Hell! I can’t wait to see their new Nintendo. Whatever the fuck that is. In the meantime, I’ll be playing a real machine. The PS3.

Where's the 'Fuck This Game' Button? Or why I only played 'Dead Space' for 10 minutes.

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:40:00 -0400

I know I’m a bit late on Dead Space which was released late last year but I finally got it from my by the mail game rental service GameAccess.ca so earlier I decided to pop it into my PlayStation 3 to give it a shot. Fast forward to me, 10 minutes later, hitting in frustration the eject button and muttering to myself, “I’m not going to fucking deal with this right now.”

It starts off with a “cutscene” that supposed to give you a sense of awe, wonder, and excitement but only made me think, “Ok, get on with it.” This is the first thing I refuse to deal with any more: Unskippable cutscenes. If I, as a player, don’t give a shit about the story then don’t try to force me to give a shit about the story or else I’ll just ending up hating the game more.

Once you get up and running you start getting the standard tutorials; how to walk, how to run, etc. I didn’t play for very long so as you might expect my largest gripe is with the controls. Movement controls are pretty standard except that “Run” is L2+L (Whenever I write two buttons with a plus, it means they are supposed to be pressed at the same time). Oh look, the first deviation from what could be considered normal controls. I’m not saying that I’m against change because if there’s no change then there’s no possibility for improvement. I’m saying that I’m against changing something for the worse. In most games, “Run” is L3 (clicking the L button down) which is really fucking convenient since you’re already touching the L button to move. Why the fuck would they change something so basic to require pressing another button and complicating the controls?

One of the next little tutorial windows that pop up is the one that informs you how to open the map, objectives, and the inventory. It seemed like normal stuff until i saw the command to open the objectives screen: Select+R3. Are you fucking kidding me? Another two-button command to do something that is usually done in one, or you could even put the objectives in another screen (which I believe they are accessible through the inventory). Again, why would they set up the controls like this. Maybe they put all the controller buttons in a bag and picked out a random two for some of their controls, “Ok, how will the players access the objectives: [picks name of first button out of bag] Ooo, Select. [picks name of second button out of bag] Ok, R3. Whatever, we can set the controls as anything as long as we put them in a tutorial at the beginning…What’s that word mean, ‘Intuitive’? Fuck you, Gary, trying to bring logic and sense into this…DON’T QUESTION THE BAG METHOD!”

A little further in the game you get your first gun and, you guessed it, they fucked up and complicated the gun controls as well. I’m fine with the new standard of L1 to aim and R1 to fire but then I saw the command for reload: L1+X, yup, another two buttons at the same time command. I have to be Aiming to reload? “Oh man, my gun is empty, I have to reload it so I guess I’ll hold it up like I’m going to shoot it first in order to reload instead of just fucking reloading it.” Why the fuck are there two buttons to fucking reload? You know, most games can do it in one. Some games I can even flick the controller to reload; yup, that’d be reloading with no buttons so why the fuck are you making me press two? I’m aware that this is part Sci-fi, part Survival Horror, maybe to make it even scarier they decided to make the controls so complicated you wouldn’t be able to remember when you’re being attacked by monsters how to control the fucking game.

Then comes a part where you get this nifty little stasis device which slows objects and enemies down. This is the part I said fuck it. I picked up the stasis device and it looks at quick glance to just be another weapon so I close the tutorial but then the weapon isn’t in my inventory, and I can’t select it. So of course I try to look for the tutorial again to see what I missed, and yes this was totally my fault but I was already frustrated with the game at this point but I couldn’t find the tutorial. I thought, “Oh, something must’ve bugged, I’ll just quit out of the game and restart and I’ll be at a checkpoint.” I do this and find that there was no checkpoint, the game hadn’t fucking saved and so I click new game thinking, nay hoping, “Well, it’ll probably be able to tell I’ve at least put the game in before, maybe that annoying opening cutscene will be skippable this time.” And yes, of course it wasn’t skippable this time so I said, “I’m not going to fucking deal with this right now” and ejected the game.

I then Googled the problem to see if it was a bug or I missed something and found out that I had missed something. I really should’ve learned from the first few tutorials to read those fuckers carefully because I found out that with my current gun equipped I was supposed to press L1+Square to fire the stasis gun. I should have known, it’s so fucking intuitive that way. Of course, I’d be able to fire something completely different when aiming my current gun. Makes total fucking sense, just like all the other controls.

Full Disclosure: In the process of writing this I did put the game back in just so I could write down the exact controls that pissed me off and I didn’t get much farther in the game: I made it 20 minutes this time before saying fuck this game. I did find out another thing that pissed me off: save stations. If you’re game doesn’t have autosave and/or checkpoints then fuck you. When I want to turn off a game, I don’t want to have to run around to find a fucking save point, I want to quit out of the game and then come back to it later at a relatively close location to where I had been before.

Watch This Show: Legend of the Seeker

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:10:00 -0400

I have a few of these TV show recommendation articles in various stages of completeness kicking around but I was inspired to finish up with this one because recently we’ve been getting bits of news on season 2 of this show. As the title suggests the show I am writing about this time ‘round is Legend of the Seeker.

LotS (as the kids are calling it these days) is a fantasy-action-drama about a young man who discovers his destiny is to be a great hero and defeat an evil villain. He’s helped on this quest by a magical sword, and wise old man that he thought was a crazy loner who turns out to be a powerful wizard, and a beautiful woman who has powers of her own. So yeah, generalized it sounds like standard Hero’s Journey stuff but it’s so much more.

Getting more specifically into the premise the young man that discovers his destiny is Richard Cypher who discovers he is destined to be The Seeker of Truth (luckily they just use “Seeker” rather than the full title for most of the season) a warrior that is chosen only in times of great need. That great need is brought upon by Darken Rahl who is a not so nice dude. Which reminds me, if you’re naming your child and you choose “Darken”, you’re kinda forcing them to go into the whole being evil business aren’t you? But I digress. The Seeker of course has help in his quest in the form of a Wizard of the First Order (I guess the most powerful type of wizard) named Zedd and a Confessor (confessors can, with a touch, make a person do anything the confessor wants) named Kahlan.

It’s based (possibly loosely from my extensive research) on a series of books that I have yet to read, though they are waiting for me, collectively called the Sword of Truth books. The Sword of Truth is the aforementioned magical sword. Apparently the books are really good but I cannot pass judgement on them until I get much more than 5 pages into the first book. They did however spawn a pretty fucking entertaining TV show.

It makes sense given that it is being made by some of the same people that made two other pretty entertaining shows: Hercules and Xena. I think it’s time for me to confess something to you dear reader. I was a big fan Hercules and Xena back in the day. And not just because Kevin Sorbo was so dreamy. Fun factoid: Michael Hurst who played Hercules’ side kick Iolaus has a role in this series for an episode as well. Oh, and Ted Raimi is also a guest star in it and you should recognize him, amongst other things, as Joxer the Mighty. Again with the digressing. The connection to Hercules/Xena might also give it bonus points as well; what the hell am I saying “might”, it definitely does.

I do have to say though it is an improvement over those shows and that could be because it is adapted from those books. It has good stories week to week and the overall arc of the season is great too. The action is decent too. So, if you’ve read this far and you’re interested in a very entertaining fantasy show then you should really watch Legend of the Seeker.

P.S.: EXTRME GEEK MOMENT

This show brings up an anecdote that will let all of you know how huge of a geek I am. My sister and I were both at different points in the season and were talking about it when my sister said, “Did you know that Darken Rahl [the evil villain in LotS] was Haldir in Lord of the Rings?” Any normal person’s reaction would’ve been along the lines of: “Who’s Haldir again?” or “OK, I care because…?” but as an extreme-geek my reaction was genuinely excited to discover this factoid and my response was, “HOLY SHIT, YOU’RE RIGHT, NO WAY!” Now, I’m not the hugest geek in the world because if I was my reaction would’ve been to respond, in proper Elvish, “Duh!”

My Top 5 Reality Shows

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:48:00 -0400

With Big Brother premiering tonight I wanted to write about reality shows in general so here’s my favourites. This list isn’t in any particular order.

Survivor
Going into it’s 19th season this fall I had to put it on this list just for the sheer amount of hours I must have spent watching it but it’s also on this list because without fail every season has something interesting about it. If you don’t know what this show is about then firstly, what the fuck and secondly, it really boils down to pretty people suffering and competing in a pretty place. There’s really not much else to say about it. I would go on with specific examples of why it is amazing but there has been so many seasons now that they all kind of blend together in my memory.

Amazing Race
Probably my favourite series on here, despite me saying I wasn’t going to order this list, The Amazing Race has some hit or miss moments; a certain “family edition” season was atrocious and some teams border on murderous rage inducing. But when its firing on all cylinders it is extremely entertaining. The Amazing Race is about a bunch of two-person teams who travel the world in a race that’s quite…incredible. It’s not only good as a competition show but you can also watch it as a travel show and look at all the weird exotic places the teams go.

Big Brother (U.S. Edition)
The 11th season just premiered recently and is the inspiration for this list. I specify the U.S. edition of this show because the U.K. version has not caught my interest in all but one season. I still say that if the U.K. edition didn’t have an hour long episode every day of the week, if it boiled down the best bits to two or three shows (the U.S. edition has three one hour shows per week when it is on) it would be so much better and I might actually be able to watch it. I watch a lot of TV but dedicating 7 hours per week to one show is a little much even for me. But I digress, Big Brother is about usually 12-ish people locked in a house and compete/strategise against each other all summer until one person is declared winner. There are so many memorable characters and moments from this show and it has the perfect amount of entertaining material; if you’re a casual watcher you can just watch the thrice weekly shows but if you’re insane you can watch 24/7. I’m kind of in between, I listen to a reality TV podcast which analyzes it and sometimes I check in on the forums where people report on the goings on in the house pre-TV show, just to find out who won certain competitions earlier.

Whale Wars
Whenever I describe this show to people I always boil it down to: Japanese Whalers vs. Hippies. Currently in its second season, this show may put people off due to the issues and politics surrounding it but trust me whatever you believe you can find something worthwhile in it. If you’re on the Japanese side you can laugh at the hippies as the royally fuck up running a ship every single episode (in the second season they finally found a single experienced sailor to join up with their cause, unfortunately they’re hippies so they’re anti-authority and structure so you can guess what happens). If you’re on the Hippies’ side, you can cheer along with them as they pursue the whalers. Despite all that, I was very happy to see this got a second season and look forward to every new episode.

Wipeout
Definitely the stupidest reality show on this list but it makes me laugh, and sometimes cringe. In Wipeout, 24 people are told to run a ludicrous obstacle course with big red balls, automated boxing gloves that usually nail the contestants either in the face or the nads, and lots of mud. Then the three hosts of the show, two in front of green screen and one actually at the course, make fun of the contestants. After several challenges, someone completes the ultimate obstacle course and wins $50,000. I can’t help but thinking this is one of the steps towards the prophetic future of Idiocracy and “Ow, My Balls!” being the most popular TV show but I don’t care, I’ll still watch.

Watch This Show: Harper's Island

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:58:00 -0400

It is unfortunate that my first TV show recommendation is for a show that will never have a second season. However, it is still worth recommendation for its outstanding, and seemingly only, season. Harper’s Island is the story of a group of people that congregate at the titular place to attend a wedding only to find that once they get there a series of brutal murders begins. Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep this article as spoiler free as possible.

Update: Just watched the finale and added a bit at the end of the article reflecting that.

The series starts off as a standard whodunnit murder-mystery but then as the killings ratchet up the more recent, and far superior, episodes shift to what’s essentially a slasher film played out on TV. What’s strange about this show is that the “mystery” was never really a mystery, as the killer is entirely expected. There is a twist however, which I will not reveal, at the end of episode eleven (titled “Gasp” as all the titles of the episodes are sounds related to the main death of the week, for example: Sploosh, Gurgle, and Thwack). I’ve seen it better described as a horror/drama which I think fits it better and the show would’ve done better had it realised that earlier instead of pushing “mystery” for so long.

The complaint I have about it being kind of predictable so far and slow to start off with is quite telling seeing as I am still recommending it because despite its flaws I am still entertained by the plot, I like the cast, and the deaths are satisfactorily gruesome (for a TV show). I am a fan of horror so I also just might have a soft spot in my heart for psychopath goes on a killing spree stories. I will say if you start off and want to give up on it early on trust me keep going with it, it gets far better than where it began.

Speaking of the cast I must mentioned a couple standouts. The groom is played by Christopher Gorham

who has for years been that guy in that show that I really liked that was canceled. I guess his streak is alive and well with this show’s cancellation. Though, to be honest, I don’t know how they would do a second season unless they came up with new characters, a new setting, and a new mystery at this point but then again the killer always comes back for more in horror movies why not here. The bride is Katie Cassidy who was great as Ruby in Supernatural which I love and will most definitely be the subject of a future TV recommendation article. She was later replaced as Ruby by an actress that I liked far less. There’s another Supernatural alum here in Jim Beaver who’s also good as the Sheriff. The probable reason for the casting of the Supernatural people is that both shows are filmed in British Columbia. That just earns the show a couple bonus points in my book (yay for Canada).

I want to write more but I’m constricted by not being able to write spoilers. I might write a full season review or something after Saturday’s series finale.

Post Finale Update: Don’t worry, no spoilers here. I wrote above about predictability and the plot not really being, or needing to be, a mystery. With one twist at the end of the first hour of the finale you can throw at least part of that out the window. I should have expected that twist because it, or something akin to it, has happened in dozens of horror movies. But it was still satisfying and I must say that I really liked the actor or actress when they had to suddenly switch to evil mode. Finally, the deaths in the last episode didn’t really live up to the standard set by the series save one; I won’t give it away but it reminded me of a magic trick from a very popular movie last year.

Anyway, my final thoughts now that the season/series is over: its slow in bits but immensely entertaining and satisfying. I will be buying the DVD when it comes out definitely.