Club Nintendo - Order Complete

Club Nintendo started offering digital downloads for coins, and says they will be changing them out monthly according to the website.


Club Nintendo - Order Complete

Club Nintendo - Order Complete

Tap, tap.... Is this thing on??

Hey what's up? I'm going to assume a lot since August 10th, since that was just shy of 4 months ago. :)

Let's see probably the biggest thing was the indoor wading pool in my basement, #!$*%@! sump pump. You never realize how much furniture and stuff you have until you have to move it all somewhere else.

I went to watch the K.C. Chiefs lose to Miami back in early November. I joked with one of my friends that I need to quit going to games, because every time I go they lose. I can't remember the last game I was at when they won, it had to be sometime before that 2009 Colts playoff game...

The people I worked for at the Haunted Island (Watson Park 2008/2009) opened again this year at a new location (Kellogg & Tyler) with a new name Moudre (you can probably google some news stories about it). I was there every weekend in October and found that an indoor "haunt" is really different from an outside location, but it was pretty cool and we didn't have to worry about the weather.

I actually did some black Friday shopping this year hitting Toy's R Us at 9pm, and then shuffling over to Wal-mart just after 10pm. We got to TRU ~30 minutes before 9pm and the line was down to Famous Footwear. I began thinking this may have been a bad idea, especially after hearing 'horror' stories from people in line about a couple years prior. I was impressed though with their setup and we were in and out (with everything we wanted) in just over 15 minutes. Since we got to Wal-mart a little after 10pm (10:20ish) I think we lucked out and missed most of the crazies. It took longer to check out at Wal-mart, but we found almost everything we wanted. I got lucky and picked up a few other items early from Amazon.com, and BestBuy.com before Thanksgiving.

I finally picked up the Gears of War 360 bundle (look back in June's post) after finding a good deal. If you've talked to me you probably know I'm not a fan of the Gears series, but it is one sweet looking 360. It has the added bonuses of more storage (320GB vs. 120GB), and N based wireless (of course the next thing on the agenda will be a new router). Not to mention I can ditch the kinect power cord, added USB ports, and custom sounds (!). Not being a fan of the series I'm not even sure what the eject sound is(?), and it seems really quiet (I don't think I ever heard the Halo Reach custom sounds so I have nothing to compare it to). I was really looking to upgrade my PS3 also (my 60GB is cramped) with the 160GB slim holiday bundle everyone had for $200, but just couldn't swing it after getting the 360.

Speaking of consoles Oct-Nov were nuts with big name game releases this year. Right now I'm playing a lot of Modern Warfare 3, and Skylanders (shock!). I'm pretty sure I snickered at the Skylanders exhibit at E3 this year, and here I am playing the heck out of it. If you like old school Spyro (PS1 era) games you'll enjoy this. I was assuming it was just a cash grab from Activision putting out a $70.00 game with $8-$20 add-ons, which it sort of is, but if you go in knowing you can finish the game with what's included in the box it's not as bad. Now if you want to 100% the game/achievements you'll need at least 5 other characters (to cover all 8 elemental types seeing as you only get 3 in the box), but look at it this way your buying 'dlc' but getting something tangible to show for it. The other positive is I think this stuff has been on sale more than it's been regular price the starter pack has been $50, and the figures have been $5 or B1G1 free a lot. Now let's not talk about Batman Arkham City, Rage, Elder Scrolls:Skyrim, or Saints Row 3 that I haven't even opened yet...

I think that about does it, except for movies and TV updates. Movies I'd have go back and look at foursquare to see what I've seen, and TV right now (at least until last week...damn split seasons) was The Walking Dead season 2.

I'm back, back again...

Okay so I picked up a 3DS (Cosmo Black) yesterday (Thanks Wal-Mart for the early price drop!) which allows me to get the new MSRP $169.99, plus the "Nintendo Ambassador" goodies (10 NES/10 GBA free Virtual Console games) for the early adopters. :) Now I'm in a quandary though.

Nintendo announced today that the Flame Red is coming alongside the September 9th Star Fox release in the U.S. Is 20 free games better than the snazzy new red color? Decisions, decisions.


Went to the drive-in a couple weeks back and saw Captain America, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Super 8 (that trifecta ran until a little after 4am). The stand out was Captain America I went in with low expectations (Thor didn't really WOW me), but was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'm now really stoked for Josh Whedon's Avengers movie next year. ***1/2
Last up was Super 8 which I had high hopes for. A period (1979) monster movie that fell into the same rut as Cloverfield these are monster movies without monsters. At least in Super 8 we have something that resembles a 'story', but the monster is covered by quick glimpse shots until the end of the movie. I liked it more than Cloverfield, but not as much as I hoped. **1/2

Transformers was okay, not a fan of the girlfriend change out and 'Witwicky' saves the day is getting tired. The action though was top notch giant explosions, and giant robots what more could you want? ***

I caught both The Change-Up, and 30 Minutes or Less at sneaks last week. Out of the two Change Up was definitely better, while at it's raunchy core it may not be politically correct, but gag inducing it made me laugh. A lot. It's a simple Freaky Friday, 18 Again!, and Hot Chick body switch movie. Married family guy with job, 3 kids, and mortgage wishes he had his slacker friend's carefree, sleep around, no job, pot smoking lifestyle, and vice versa. Boom! Pee in a magic fountain and halarity ensues. ****

On the other hand, 30 Minutes just never got going. I had seen the previews and thought it looked pretty good, pizza delivery guy gets jacked by to costumed 'criminal masterminds' who force him to rob a bank and halarity ensues. Ummm, no. While I didn't mind the pizza guy (Jessie Eisenberg) and his friend (Aziz Ansari) the 'criminal masterminds' (Danny McBride, Nick Swardson) never clicked. It seemed like the setup took forever, then bank robbery/conclusion/done. It's only 83 minutes long and 5 of that is probably the opening/closing credits so there wasn't a lot of story added in. Underwhelming. **1/2

A friend wants to see Cowboys & Aliens or Rise of Planet of the Apes today. I'm leaning towards Rise because the word-of-mouth for Cowboys is pretty lackluster.

I've been watching quite a few summer TV series including Falling Skies, Nine Lives of Chloe King, Switched at Birth, Alphas, Teen Wolf and Necessary Roughness as well as returning shows like The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, The Glades, Covert Affairs, and Haven most of which are ending the season soon (or already Falling Skies). Those were the ones that I stayed with all the way, but there were some that didn't make it very far. Wilfred, Outcasts, Suits, 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show, The Hot Zone, and Sand Masters got anywhere from a single viewing up to three episodes and then fizzled out.

I've also become somewhat addicted to Auction Hunters, and Storage Wars even though I know they're 'staged' I enjoy them enough that I've caught most all of the episodes (thanks A&E, and Spike for re-airing the crap out of them!) of both shows, and watch the new ones now when they air.

First day of E3...

It was a long day yesterday, got up early to go to the Nintendo Press Conference at the Nokia Center. Overall not a bad presentation. I was not thrilled with the name "Wii U" of the new console, but I didn't like "Wii" either to begin with. It seems like an HD console with an iPad for a controller, and the fact that you can only have one connected to the system and the rest are normal Wiimotes is kinda weird.

The line to see it on the show floor was huge, and the fact that most of the stuff is just tech demos doesn't thrill me. I stuck around Nintendo's booth since the line was so long, amazingly the line for the 3DS stuff was almost non-existent this year. I tried a lot of 3DS titles including Luigi's Mansion 2, Super Mario, Star Fox 64 (multiplayer), Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, Mario Kart, Kid Icarus Uprising (multiplayer), and Resident Evil Revelations. Luigi and Resident Evil were both awesome and looked really good in 3D, Mario Kart and Super Mario were both fun although I found it a little difficult to make some of the jumps in Super Mario playing in 3D, but maybe that was just me.

The rest of the day was mainly spent walking around checking out what was there, I did watch presentations on Saints Row the Third, as well as Metro Last Light which both look really good, Saints was just amazing and Metro just reminded me that I still need to play the first one Metro 2033. I noticed during the Metro presentation that Joshua Gomez (Morgan Grimes on Chuck) was sitting a couple rows ahead of me, and after it was over and the lights came up noticed that Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski on Chuck) was sitting in front too, so I asked for a picture. :)

I also played Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City co-op on the 360 that was pretty neat, the whole campaign can be played single player or 4 player online co-op. Microsoft again has all of the Summer of Arcade titles set up, along with some other XBLA titles that I'm going to try out today.

E3 baby! Craig Ferguson, and more...

Well 2 of the big 3 press briefings are already over, with just Nintendo left tomorrow morning (check-in @ 7:15am, I really should be going to bed....). Starting with Microsoft, I felt a little underwhelmed by the whole thing. I loved the CoD:MW3 play at the beginning and Tomb Raider, and the new dash control looks neat. Some of the Kinect intergration was neat (game wise), but unecessary as far as I could tell, and I wasn't really excited about anything else. I'm not a fan of the Gears series, but tonight I found that MS was releasing a new console for the launch, this 320GB 2 controller system will be out September 20th for $399.99 and looks sweet!

I only caught Sony's conference after it started, but read up on what I missed. What's up with Sony getting all the 'extra' content included with games now? Bioshock Infinite nets you Bioshock on the same blu-ray, and with Battlefield 3 you get Battlefield 1943. I was not inclined to get a NGP (oh wait Vita) but then Irrational Games goes and says they're working on a Bioshock for Vita probably the one thing that could get me to buy one.

I went to a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson this afternoon at CBS Television Studios, and have come to the conclusion that it's a lot of effort to be an audience member. It's not a very big set at all, but it was fun.

World of Keflings, Source Code, and more...

It seems like "Wow, it's been a while" is starting to be the first thing in all of these post. I started a post back at the end of February after the Academy Shorts Festival and for some reason never got back to it...

I picked up World of Keflings, and Costume Quest from the XBLA sale(s) going on right now. There are some one day deals (April 1st) to check out tomorrow, including a couple add-ons (for Fallout New Vegas, and Fable 3) as well as a couple discounted games.

So far I've only put some time into WoK which is kinda like a avatar based RTS lite. You use your avatar and have control of the little Keflings helping them build buildings, giving them jobs, and more. A very "Sim" like game. I was happy when I got the first achievement...





Best Achievement Ever! I'm enjoying it, and on sale at 400MS points ($5) it's really neat. I would also recommend getting Dorito's Crash Course which is free (it was one of the finalist in last years Doritos promotion) another avatar based game that plays like the Wipeout tv show.

I went to the Source Code sneak last night at the Warren. I enjoy most time travel/alternate reality movie settings so I was intrigued by the previews. The simple premise is they can send someone into the body of someone else 8 minutes before they died. There was a terrorist attack on a commuter train which they believe is a "warm-up" for something much bigger, so Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is being sent back to find out who the terrorist is (think Groundhog Day with a little Quantum Leap). I really liked it, it wasn't until afterwords that some of the time logic seemed questionable, but overall a fun action ride.

HELLO! -- Hello -- hello -- hello...

Wow, it's been a while. Fitting that the last post was getting tickets for the Rockettes show a couple weeks ago, that didn't happen. Evidently they decided to cancel one of their 8 performances, which naturally was the one I had tickets for, needless to say we show up on November 21st thinking "parking isn't bad at the arena" only to find a note taped on the door saying the performance was canceled. I got a refund on the extra ticket we had bought, so I guess I only lost 30-45 minutes of my time back in July, but was still pretty PO'd.

I noticed I hadn't updated the sidebar since then either, as I was adding the sneak of The Tourist I watched last night (Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie), a drama-thriller (so says IMDB). It was pretty good, although I felt it moved at a slower pace than I preferred maybe because going in I had it pegged as an action-thriller. I had flashbacks of Salt which was just ~5 months ago, and sure enough this one has a couple of twist in the story to *maybe* keep you guessing.

I will point out a couple of excellent TV shows that hit this fall, Terriers on FX a crime drama starring Donal Logue (Grounded for Life) as an ex-cop turned PI and his sidekick. It's a dark, gritty police/drama that actually had an overarching story for most all of the season, but the worst title in history. The other stand out was the 6 episode season of The Walking Dead on AMC following a group of survivors in the aftermath of a "zombie" outbreak (although they never use that word in the show). It's based off of a comic book series and while there are a couple of great "zombie" attacks/slayings it's a lot more about the characters than the action.

Rockettes, joining the Mafia, and the Irrational Bomb!

The Rockettes held their Kick Across America yesterday, and Wichita was one of the eight locations picked. They gave away tickets to the first 100 yesterday afternoon at the Intrust bank arena to those who came out for the 'kick line'. I expected more people, but when my daughter and I arrived at noon there was only about 50 people in line, so we hung out for an hour and got tickets. I'm sure people driving by the arena, and working across the street were trying to figure out why 100 people where in a line wearing santa hats, in the middle of the afternoon. :)

When I got home yesterday afternoon, I turned on the 360 to finish downloading the Mafia II demo (the power went out Wednesday evening to the entire neighborhood, cutting short the download then). It turns out it is the same demo that was on the show floor at E3, but that one I played on the PS3. I've played through it a couple times now (had to find all 5 of the Playboy magazines in the demo), and it's really good. I took more time (the demo has a 10 minute timer) to just wander around, shoot people, steal different cars, and buy weapons. As I stated in my E3 ramblings, this wasn't a title I was looking forward to (I was actually waiting to play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multi-player when the Mafia guy handed me the controller) but the demo has swayed me. I was burnt out after GTA IV plus the fact that I didn't like the characters (in GTA IV) so I had let third person open world games slide off my radar then we get Red Dead, and now Mafia. I guess maybe I just need my open world games set in a different time period to get me excited about them.

While the Mafia demo was downloading, I had also added "Irrational's new game announcement-What is Icarus" video to my queue from the dashboard ad. When I finished messing around with Mafia I remembered the video download so I went and fired it up not knowing what I was about to see. The video starts off with murky green background that rapidly changes into bubbles and focusing on what appears to be descent underwater, while the music sounds like a 1900's victrola. I'm thinking OMG, OMG it's Bioshock (I was probably out of my chair jumping up and down at this point). The video continues as the plants, and rocky bottom come into focus then we pass a Big Daddy statue, finally coming over the horizon as a city comes into view... Why are you still reading this? Download the video, and check out the Whatisicarus.com (which now redirects to Bioshockinfinate.com).

Hopefully you've now watched the trailer in all it's splendor, and found that it is an announcement trailer for Bioshock Infinate. The new game takes place in 1912 (and as the video shows fantastically) in the floating sky-city of Columbia, and supposedly is coming out in 2012 if internet chat boards are to be believed. I don't think a game trailer has ever made me this 'giddy' before.

More Blu, Okie for a day, and more...

A couple weeks ago I picked up a clearance blu-ray drive for my PC. I didn't pay that close of attention to it thinking it was a just a blu-ray reader, but as it turns out it also is a CD/Dual layer DVD burner with lightscribe (so technically it could totally replace my current drive). It came with a copy of PowerDVD that was unusable (first it wouldn't select the drive, then it wouldn't recognize blu-ray media) so I gave up uninstalled it, and went with TotalMedia Theatre (because WMP doesn't support blu-ray in Vista, or 7 for some reason) which works fine.
Now I just need to upgrade to a 1080P 16:9 monitor. :)

A friend had a meeting in Tulsa, OK Wednesday afternoon, so I went along for the ride. We knew there was a Dave & Busters now, so we stopped for lunch there after a wonky GPS detour. I've been to D&B in Denver, K.C., and now Tulsa (which is the smallest location out of the three), and have never had a bad meal the food is always good.

After his meeting we decided to take in a movie, so we went to Inception that was showing in IMAX at CineMark Tulsa. It was directed by Christopher Nolan who also did Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight (I still haven't watched either of the last two). I had seen the trailers so I knew it was a sci-fi/thriller/action and it didn't disappoint, and lived up to the praise everyone was telling me.

We also seen the new Quik Trip prototype store with multiple entrances, a coffee/soft serve bar, outdoor patio area, and so many drink choices it made my head spin (there must have been 7-10 iced tea flavors).

I went to a sneak preview of SALT Tuesday night, and came away feeling rather "meh". It was okay, but never really did anything out of the ordinary the action scenes/chases were pretty cool but seemed like standard fare. I can only imagine how lackluster this would have been if I seen it after Inception, instead of before.

The new 'summer' crop of tv shows has started spilling out with some running 4-5 weeks, and others just onto their second week. My current favorites The Glades (A&E), Rizzoli and Isles (TNT), and Covert Affairs (USA). Those that fall somewhere in between Rookie Blues (ABC), The Good Guys (FOX), and Haven (SyFy). Rookie has had 5 episodes now and it's just not 'gripping' me, while Good Guys started off okay (funny odd-couple schtick) it hasn't made any strides lately. I really liked the first episode of Haven, but the second one seemed kinda cheesy, I hope they pick up a bit from here.

XBLA Summer of Arcade, and Knight and Day...

Microsoft has released this year's Summer of Arcade schedule, and pricing information. The titles included are Limbo (7/21), Hydro Thunder Hurricane (7/28), Castlevania Harmony of Despair (8/4), Monday Night Combat (8/11), and finally Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (8/18). All of the titles will be 1200 MS points ($15 real bucks) if you buy all 5 you get 1200 MS points back (buy 4 get 1 free), or if you buy 3 get 400 MS points back

All of these were playable at E3 this year, and I probably played the demo for Lara Croft 5-6 times (why is it releasing last?!) and was already on my "must buy" list. I know I won't get all 5 because watching people play MNC it wasn't something I would play even if I really wanted the other 4. Limbo looks like a cool 2D platformer (which I love) with a weird b&w art style, but I'll need to read some reviews first. I enjoyed playing Hurricane (I loved HT in the arcade, and on Dreamcast), but for some reason can't get over the downloads $15 price tag (especially when history shows it will be on sale for $7-$10 within 6-12 months). Finally the Castlevania game seems more focused towards co-op play, which I'm not a big fan of, although I enjoy the 2D world of metro-vania so it might be my third title if the reviews pan out.

I went and seen Knight and Day today, and don't know what the filmmakers were trying to pull, but I've been to Wichita Mid-Contienant Airport and your visual representation was 'wwwwayyy' off. :( The sprinkling of Wichita jokes were pretty funny though, and it ended up being more of romantic-comedy than action comedy I was expecting. Overall a very fun 2 hour romp with some great stunts, and chase scenes. Think of it as Bourne extra-light less story, less filling, but enjoyable nonetheless!

Random stuff including Blur, TVs, and my E3 insights.

Pretty good day I just picked up Blur, and Lips for $19.99. K-Mart and Best Buy are both running Blur for $39.99, and Activision has a $20 off coupon here, I used the coupon at K-mart to net Blur for $19.99 and they had Lips (original release w/2 wireless microphones) on clearance for $19.99 so I grabbed it too. Go to www.blurgame.com and make sure you check out the animated 'Brock Lee Race TV Spot' (should be the first video that plays when you load the page) it's really funny.

I'm in the market for a new TV, my current 42" has some minor issues plus I would like to move up to a 52" or 55" screen. I've been looking around trying to get some ideas for now, but haven't really decided on LCD/Plasma yet. I've been skeptical of LCD panels for a while because of the lack of true blacks in the picture (I've noticed this on the TV my Dad bought earlier in the year), but have been looking at a new Sharp AQUOS set (LC52E77U) that people seem to like.

I've recouped from my return trip fiasco (thanks again, United) that you heard about if you followed my facebook posts. I've been back at work a few days, and have been talking about all the amazing stuff at this year's E3. The summer of arcade XBLA stuff was the first stuff on the floor I hit, Limbo, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (my most played at E3, I think I went through the demo 3-4 times), and Castlevania Harmony of Despair all look great. Hydro Thunder Hurricane played great but the $15 price tag for some reason on that one bugs me. Check out this page for more info on these titles, and scroll down to watch a video of them in action! Other download (XBLA/PSN) games I'm now looking forward to include Death Spank a funny action RPG, and Dead Nation an awesome top down zombie shooter.

I tried 3 Kinect demos and unfortunately was underwhelmed, even with what I assume were perfect conditions (extra lights/blank walls behind us) it felt either unresponsive or over sensitive depending on the game, while PlayStation's Move on the other hand I tried with Socom 4 and left really impressed.

I got to try Mafia II and if Red Dead Redemption is GTA in the wild west, Mafia is GTA in the 1950's. It was not a title I was looking forward to, but the demo actually may have swayed my view. Killzone 3, and Motorstorm: Apocalypse were both in 3D, and while they were neat I don't know how long I could play a game in 3D at a time.

Grown Ups.

I went to a sneak last night of Grown Ups the new Adam Sandler movie. It was pretty much what I expected, and had some funny parts, although seemed a little heavy handed towards the end trying to get it's message across. The 'boys' win a championship basketball game in 1978, and get reunited 30+ years later when they go back home to their coaches funeral. It's a star studded cast including Kevin James, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, and Maria Bello as well as probably 4-6 other bit parts by people you'll recognize.

Another HDTV, phone fun, and 360 happenings...

Was out running around after work tonight and came across a Phillips 30PW8402 16:9 HDTV (see below) at Goodwill. Let me tell you about this bad boy, it's a 30" inch wide screen CRT television set, really close to the Samsung 30" 16:9 HDTV I've owned for probably 5-6 years now. It supports 480p/1080i plus has an HDMI input (a feature which my Samsung lacks) but like the Samsung lacks a digital tuner (a mute point with the digital Cox box hooked up). While my Samsung has a beautiful HD picture (almost crisper to me than the 42" HD projection TV that replaced it) these CRT monstrosity's have one big downside, they weigh around 125 lbs. The Phillips set is actually more 'carry' friendly having a hand hold under the speakers in front and a lip over the rear connectors to grasp onto. I played around in the store for about 30 minutes powering it on, checking the menu options from the remote, which all worked fine, but didn't have a antenna to get a picture. I asked one of the clerks and she said there were no refunds, but had no objections to me hooking up a VCR that was for sale and trying out a tape. The set worked as far as I could tell so I went ahead an plunked down my $38.24 (including tax) and was on my way.

A couple curse words later (did I mention how heavy these are??), and a trip downstairs, my daughter is now playing her 360 in HD chucking the 19" set she had to the curb. The first shot is the Phillips website thumbnail, the second shot is my daughter playing 1943 on the 360.

I upgraded my phone a couple months back (android Cliq) and started playing around with some of the games about a week ago. I've played around with Raging Thunder 2 a pretty cool racing game (which I suck at), and Crystallight (a tower defense game) but so far I'm enjoying Colorix (think Sega's Columns), Gameboid (a GBA emulator), and Shoot U! (a simple physics based 'puzzle' game) the most. One of the podcast I listen to recommended Devilry Huntress (a match 3 game with a horror theme) so I'm looking forward to trying it out next. I went with the Cliq because Motorola had stated there was a 2.x OS update coming March-April this year (plus I wanted the real keyboard) well here we are almost into June and the 2.x update is still nowhere to be found. :( Other than that shortcoming I'm enjoying my phone so far.

I've gotten back into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multi-player recently, as I never really started playing when it came out. I'm 'jonesing' for the extra map pack (Stimulus) that came out back at the end of March, but I'm having a really hard time justifying $15.00 bucks for 3 new maps, and 2 redo's from COD4. Then (Activision) goes and announces the new pack (Resurgence) set for June 3rd again consisting of 3 new maps, and 2 redo's from COD4 for $15.00 (hmmm... notice a trend here?). I held off buying the Stimulus pack in some sort of hope filled, fairy tale, kitty cuddling universe that when the Resurgence pack goes up there will be a package discount for one or both. The other game that has monopolized my 360 time is Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Horse as some like to call it, playing like GTA set in the old west. It gets the look and feel down cold, I'm having as much fun riding around killing wildlife and skinning them for cash, as I am completing the missions.

Blog moved, and E3 is in view...

Well due to Blogger.com turning off ftp support (b*tch*s!) the blog has moved to http://network-xxiii.blogspot.com (if you want a direct link), although all of the old starting pages should redirect you correctly.

E3expo is fast approaching (June 15-17) in L.A. I've got my registration in, and my hotel room booked, plus I somehow got invited to the Nintendo press event Tuesday (6/15) morning. I don't know if it's the excitement build up for E3 again, or the 5 day work vacation...I'm going to guess the later. :)

On the road again...

Well time for my whirlwind trip through 5 states in 5 days again. We just entered Texas a couple minutes ago, the GPS isb saying we'll be to Houston by 4:17 but that's not counting, Fry stops. :)

Everyone's doing it, Attention!, and 3D...

Found the following video, which evidently has been deemed too explicit for TV airing. It's a commercial, and I'll bet not for what you think. :)

I spent a couple days last week in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO for a basic training graduation. It sets almost smack dab in the lower middle of Missouri coupled with the town of St. Roberts, MO. almost 90 miles from Springfield, and 130 miles from St. Louis. The base seemed larger than McConnell, although probably because it was spread out and situated in the woods. The town of St. Roberts on the other hand seemed to be home to a lot of clubs, bars, and tattoo parlors spread out along the highway.

I found the new Samsung 3D TV was hooked up at Sears the other day so I thought I would try it out. It took a while before it dawned on me that the 3D glasses had to be turned on to function. :) They were playing Monsters Vs. Aliens (part of the starter kit you have buy, 2 pairs of glasses, and the blu-ray 3D version of the movie) on the TV. I didn't see MvA in the theaters so my only 3D experience is with Bob's Big Break short that was on the current blu-ray release and uses the magenta/green glasses at home. Once I turned the glasses on it was pretty stunning and showed a expansive amount of depth, since I hadn't seen it theatrically I don't know if it was a faithful recreation or not. I did notice some characters had a "halo" around them and guess this was probably caused by the viewing angle, something it seems would be a limiting factor at home, like there would be maybe two/three prime viewing locations? That starter kit I mentioned (2 glasses/MvA movie) runs $349.99 although it seems most retailers will give it to you free if you buy a new 3D HDTV, and the 3D blu-ray player. There have been reports that the PS3 will be upgradable (via firmware) to 3D blu-ray capabilities at some time in the future so I'm in a wait and see pattern for now. I found it interesting that COX is actually devoting an HD channel to showing the Masters in 3D right now, if you have one of the two TVs to view it on.

New DS inbound???

The web was buzzing early Tuesday morning with the news that a new DS was coming. Nintendo Japan released a press release Tuesday around 3 a.m. our time stating specifically that the Nintendo 3DS (a temporary name) would be out sometime before March 2011, include 3D games (without special glasses!), and would be backwards compatible with all DS/DSi games.
Now, if the PDF wasn't posted on the Nintendo.jp website I would call bullsh*t. This seems like an incredibly stupid move considering the DSi-XL is supposed to launch (in the U.S.) this coming Sunday, way to cannibalize sales there big N. All is supposed to be revealed at E3 in June, already have my pass so hopefully it will be cool!


The items from the press release are all we know to be fact, but the internet has dug around and come up with all sorts of other tidbits (unknown validity at this point). Screens are supposed to be 4", this would make it larger than the DSi, but smaller than the DSi-XL. The screens supposedly have no bezel around them so when open it could work as one big screen, or the two independent DS screens just like normal. Rumors also abound that the system will have a more powerful processor, a new graphics chip (making it on par with a GameCube in power), an accelerometer (tilt control), and built-in rumble (the only thing I miss my GBA slot for).


The 3D without glasses is the most interesting caveat (and we know it's true) although most agree it will be special screens, there is a video (below) that shows a DSiWare hidden object game that's out in Japan already that looks pretty good considering it doesn't require any special hardware. The DSiWare game uses the camera to track you head movement, and changes the view accordingly so you can peer behind/above/below objects.

Went to see the Wichita Troll today. Someone told a friend about it a week or so ago, and he wanted to see it for himself, so we found him today. I wonder what he did to get chained up? :(

Academy Shorts, and drive-in movies...

I spent Saturday (March 6Th) downtown at the Warren watching the Academy shorts program, a tradition now for I don't know how many years, were you get to see the nominated (Animated Short, Live Action Short, and Documentary (short subject)) entries from each category. I was only able to pick the Documentary short this year ("Music by Prudence"), neither my choice for animated "A Matter of Loaf or Death", or live action "Miracle Fish" won. All in all though it was a pretty good year at least the documentaries didn't put me to sleep. :)

My niece was staying with us that weekend so after getting home from the shorts we went out to eat, then ran some errands. On a whim (since we were on the south end of town anyway) we went by the drive-in, and found that they were open doing $10 car load nights. We settled on screen 1 which was The Spy Next Door, The Tooth Fairy, and Twilight: New Moon, mainly because my daughter and niece didn't want to see the shows on the other screen.

I knew we wouldn't stay for Twilight sequel because no one had seen the first one, and I was leery about The Tooth Fairy because I had read some pretty bad reviews. I was pleased when The Spy Next Door turned out to be a Jackie Chan film that I evidently had never heard of, and ended up being okay. Sure it was a little on the campy side, and Mr. Chan isn't getting any younger, but overall a watchable comedy with a side of chop-chop thrown in.

I actually enjoyed The Tooth Fairy. I don't know if it's because I had such low expectations from all the bad reviews, but it was actually pretty good. I like the Rock in comedic roles (I seem to remember liking Game Plan also...), sure it's not going to win any awards, but I liked it.

I went back this last Saturday to catch the features on the other screen, it was a little cooler out this time. I had already seen Sherlock Holmes, but both Cop Out and Book of Eli were new to me. Cop Out is directed by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, etc...) apparently to show he can do a major 'studio' film. I always enjoy Bruce Willis, but I'm not a fan of Tracy Morgan and judging form the reviews I've seen he was the weak link. Cop Out has some decent action comedy going on, but seemed a little to over the top to me. There are other 'buddy cop' movies that are far superior to this one (most of the Lethal Weapon movies, 48 hours, Beverly Hills Cop) it's okay, but that's about it. Lucky for me, I didn't pay much to see it.

Book of Eli on the other hand was worth staying up till 2:30 am for. I had seen the previews, but was thinking it was a post-apocalyptic action thriller. I had visions of Mad Max and a movie version of Fallout 3 (which I was playing when I saw the first trailer...). Turns out that it was almost a post-apocalypse parable in tone. There are a few bloody (*gory*) action sequences, and even though they happen so quick, I can see why it got an R rating. Overall it was a good movie, and except for maybe one scene I don't feel that they beat me over the head with the message. I could definitely see myself picking up the blu-ray when it comes out to watch it again.

HD finally?, and gaming flood incoming...

My parents are by no means 'tech savvy', an older generation that is on the outside not really caring to look in. Imagine my surprise when Dad mentions he wants to go looking for a big screen TV to replace the 25" console he's had for years. I finally sat them down, and asked what they were going to hook up to this new TV, my mom was actually saddened when I told her she couldn't hook the VCR up to it, because it was out of date. Last week we went out and they bought a new 52" LCD, and signed up for digital cable. Times they are a changing, welcome to today.


I picked up a PSP Go a couple weeks ago (found a smoking deal on a used one). I'm not really on the digital only bandwagon, quite the opposite I'm very material, I want something tangible for my money. I want to buy a movie, book, video game and have a safety net so if I don't care for it, or finish it (yeah like that happens) I know there is resale value there. The total loss of UMD's was a hindering factor, so I had decided not to get the Go, but then the price dropped $50 and I was sold. Evidently I got all the tech savvy in my family. :) It's been about two weeks and so far I'm liking the Go the comics feature is kinda cool, and the fact that some of my blu-rays are coming with portable copies (District 9, and Zombieland) for the PSP is neat. The only game I've downloaded so far is Pinball Heroes (only available from the PSN network), but I'm intrigued that the PSP minis can now be played on the PS3 with the latest firmware upgrade.

I finally got around to trying Borderlands on the 360 and it's amazing, like Fallout 3 with a lot more shooting. I was hesitant when it was released because I kept hearing that to unlock the best loot drops in the game you had to be playing co-op with 1-3 other people. The last GAMERadio podcast they were revisiting Borderlands and mention specifically that he was under that impression, but remembers getting better drops playing solo. This and the rest of their coverage (they also review the first DLC pack the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned) swayed me to pick it up. So far, so good I'm almost level 8 soldier after a couple nights.

I'm getting pretty psyched for BioShock 2. I caught an episode of GameTrailers a while back that was interviews with 2k about single player, and multi-player. The 3 minute plus trailer below aired during Jimmy Fallon show on February 2nd, and looks freaking amazing. I was a huge fan of the first game, and have had my reservations with second (4 different studios working on it, Ken Levine not involved), but over the last couple weeks I've been swayed. I can't wait to get back to Rapture. :)

Gamestop funny, 360 goes home?

Found this on Joystiq this morning, made me laugh. Most of it is factual. :)



CES 2010 is underway in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show will surely be the focus of some updates for the next couple of days. Microsoft kicked things off early last night with a press conference, and evidently leaked video interview footage on a web site earlier yesterday. The coolest thing was their "Xbox Game Room" announcement, an avatar area devoted to classic coin op video games (think one of the cool parts of PS3 home, except you had to wait in line hoping to play). You can head over to Joystiq and check out a video and also download the Fact Sheet for more preliminary info and pricing, which wasn't too bad. $5 (400 MS points) will get you a machine on both 360 & PC, $3 (240 MS points) will get you one or the other 360 or PC, or you can pump $.50 (40 MS points) in for a single game (must be inflation old school games cost a .25 when I was going to the arcade). If one of your "friends" has purchased a game you can also visit their "Game Room" and try a game for free, before purchasing it. Sounds like a neat concept.