Rocking and Breaking

So yeah, I thought I had done my last post, but I was wrong. Wrong I tell you! So, instead of being on break, and I writing another post. Well, I guess I am on break, I just spent most of the night playing Rock Band 3. I fully recommend it to everyone who likes music based entertainment. You have to have fingers. And hands. If you checked all three, please apply.

But really, you’re probably thinking, “Rock Band 3? What is so cool about that? There are already three of them! It’s old hat!” and normally, you would be right. But, Harmonix, the people who make the Rock Band series, are different. They like to actually innovate with each installment into their series, and innovate did they ever in this game.

Biggest change of all comes in the form of the newly added keyboards. Before, the instruments available were guitar, bass, drums and vocals. This is the way it had been for the last two games, so you can imagine how big a change this is. The keys are really fun to play, and most of all, feel like you are actually playing the keys. This comes in the form of “Pro” mode, a mode that allows people to add new attachments to their existing instruments and actually play them as you would in real life. The easiest to pull this off is with the Keys, as you have to but cymbals for the drums, and an actual stringed guitar for the guitars. But, once you have them all, the game really jumps into overdrive. You begin to feel like you are a real band, and if you all memorize your parts, and play your instruments plugged into amps, you will really be playing the music. It is really incredible.

On a completely different note, I went and saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and it truly was a very good movie. I do recommend any fans of the books to see it, as it is by and large the best adaptation the series has received up to this point.

Well that’s it for me folks. I’m truly out this time. I hope to see you around!

Walking Dead Past the Finish Line

My final blog post, and it is late! As usual. Was anyone expecting anything different? Maybe I was, but then I completely forgot to do it! That happens when you are working on three different papers, a website, a sound project, and a group project ALL AT ONCE! But hey, no one ever said your senior year (well, second senior year) would be easy. But hey! I got a lot of cool things to make it go down easier. Things like the Walking Dead on AMC!

For those not in the know, the recently premiered, zombie-focused, show that premiered on AMC on Halloween night is based on a long running series of comic books by Robert Kirkman and is primarily focused on how human kind would continue on after a zombie apocalypse. Like the books, the show is definitely focused more on the characters than it is on the zombies, creating drama out of the stress of having to survive and starting life anew. And like the comics, the shows major antagonists typically turn out to be humans. The premiere was written and directed by Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont, and the remainder of season one will be produced by him. It is unclear if he will return for season two, which was greenlit shortly after the second episode, a large testament to it’s ratings.

The first episode was pretty excellent to, focusing on the dark poignant aspect of life after the zoms, starting literally with a bang as series protagonist Rick Grimes is forced to kill a little girl zombie. With that, the mood is set, the audience knows that right away that this show will not pull any punches, something that should please longtime readers of the comics, which are far on the side of “horrifically tragic” in their portrayal of life during this time. Characters of all kinds will come and go, most likely in a body bag. That isn’t to say that the show doesn’t have it’s own path set out. Already in the first two episodes, events and people have been seen that were never in the comics. Some great… and some not so great. Here is hoping the show is able to find that path, while still retaining what made the books so great.

On a completely unrelated and word count filling note, I pointed out a few weeks ago that Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3 had been delayed from it’s previous release date of early November, with no word of when it would finally be released. Well, the short wait is finally over, as series creator Yamauchi himself has stated that the game will finally hit stores on November 24th, almost a whole two years past it’s initial release date. I haven’t played an entry in the series since the PS2′ Gran Turismo 3, but I have a friend who is deeply devoted to the series, and he is doing a damn good job of pushing me over the edge towards purchase. I’m not the biggest gear head on the planet, but I certainly have a soft spot for cool cars going fast. Plus, the list of features the game is promising are just staggering, everything from car damage to Go-Karts. So here is hoping that the delay was worthwhile.

Well folks, that’s it for the official, school mandated posts. Will I return to post more? Who knows. I will probably still write, but I will probably not post them here. They will probably be posted here. Have a good one.

The Weeks Where Nothing Happened: Minecraft Edition

Hey everybody. You may’ve noticed I didn’t post last week. Yeah. That was a crazy, crazy week.

Today I am playing Minecraft, as all the cool kids seem to be doing. It’s a crazy game. You start out as a person all alone in a strange world, with nothing but the clothes on your back, and your hands. Which you use to punch trees! Then you use the wood to make a pickaxe, and then use that wooden pickaxe to mine stone, and use that stone to make a stone pick axe, so you can dig deeper! Then you build a house! Because if you are out and about in the nighttime, you will be killed by monsters!

It’s a bit crazy.

And on Halloween, the creator, a man who made the game near single-handedly, and has made over a million dollars on the game, released a new update that added a “hell” like dimension that you can build a gate into. In there are meter long ghosts that fire fireballs at you. Did I mention this game was crazy?

So yeah, I’m behind on most of the news going on in the world right now. I’m playing alot of Minecraft, and alot of Team Fortress 2. I recommend them both a great deal.

I bought Team Fortress 2 around 3 years ago, and it is still as fresh as it was then. Mostly because Valve, the creators, have been updating it with free content during the course of those years. I keep getting in and out of it, every couple of months, and I’m back in after a bit of a longer stint than usual. They also did a Halloween update, adding some fun scary elements to the game, and even the first boss character. A Horseless Headless Horseman that spawns at random, causing both teams to put aside their differences and fight together to stop the menace.

It is a damn fun game.

Ok, wow, so tired. Gonna call it for now. I stay up late so you don’t have to.

There And Back Again: A Hobbit’s Cast

It seems the strike in New Zealand isn’t stopping The Hobbit from being made! In a pretty fast turnaround, it seems that the Hobbit movie went from ‘almost dead’ to ‘we have cast the main character.’ A pretty big accomplishment for a movie that everyone was getting ready to pronounce KIA.

And who has been cast to play a younger version of Ian Holm’s Bilbo Baggins? None other than the amazing Martin Freeman!

Our new Bilbo!

Readers may not know the name immediately, but if you have been watching any British comedies in the last decade, you would know him right away. Martin was

the original ‘Jim’ in the British Office (or as they like to call it, The Office) where he played Tim! The American version was really creative in changing the names, eh? But his biggest claim to fame over here in the states will most definitely be his role as Arthur Dent in the live action adaptation of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Honestly, I find this to be brilliant news. I am a big fan of Martin’s (his current role was Watson i

n Stephen Moffat’s modernized series is brilliant) and think he can easily carry this role as the unwilling little Hobbit. And he even kinda looks like a young Iam Holm!

Complementing Mr. Freeman are: Richard Armitage as  Thorin Oakenshield; Aidan Turner and Rob Kazinsky as Kili and Fili; Graham McTavish as Dwalin; John Callen as Oin; Stephen Hunter as Bombur; and Mark Hadlow as Dori and Peter Hambleton as Gloin. And of course Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen will be returning as Gollum and Gandalf respectively.

While we are on the news of actors replacing older actors’ roles, why not bring up this slice of fried gold. A few months back, TellTale Games, makers of amazing adventure games, announced they are making a series of Back to the Future games, with Christopher Lloyd even returning to play good ol Doc Brown! But this left us fans worrying, who would be voicing Michael J. Fox’s Mary McFly? Well it seems we’ve gotten our answer. Watch this video and be amazed at the voice they found to replace Fox.

It’s just spot on! I was seriously blown away by this! It seriously ratcheted up my excitement for this by tenfold! It’s release cannot come soon enough!

Well that’s all for this week. Remember, I compile lists of British actor names so you don’t have to!

Where Does the Time Go?

I really cannot stress how much more time I wish I could have in a week. I am getting to the point where none of my projects are coming to fruition in a timely manner, nor am I able to get relieve stress in ways that I usually would! No time for games, movies, comics or books! Just time for studying! And surfing other blogs for news!

Here is news I found interesting!

The Hobbit, the long awaited prequel movies to the world-wide phenomenon, The Lord of the Rings, has finally been greenlit for production, despite having been in pre-production for the last year, with actor Ian McKellen and crew ready to film at moment’s notice. The one big holdup was finding a director, and at one point, it seemed that fantasy director darling Guillermo Del Toro was set to helm, but had to duck out once the starting date fell behind schedule, and for a while, no one was stepping up to the plate. Until finally, a few days ago, Peter Jackson, director of the original movies, just said “screw it! I’ll do it myself!” and hopped into that ol’ canvas chair.

I can’t think of a way to say that this is bad news. Currently, they are planning on making two movies, with some original content thrown in to fill the time out, as The Hobbit wasn’t a spectacularly long book to begin with. Some say the content will be some stuff from Tolkien’s appendices, others saying it will be original plots from Jackson and Co., but only time will tell.

Oh, what else what else? Gran Turismo 5 for the Playstation 3 got delayed, AGAIN. While it was supposed to come out in November, the venerable masthead series fifth installment has once again been put off while the team continues to polish it up. While annoying, I guess it’s for the best. They still project that it will be out before the end of the year, but, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Oh man. I stay up late and blog this so you don’t have to. Seriously, I don’t recommend it at all.

The Muse Network

This week may break my nerd blog rules a bit, but, I think that most I’m gonna be writing about tonight falls under the purview’s of nerddom, and those are the movie “The Social Network,” and the concert I went to for the band Muse.

I guess the first one seems a bit obvious, “The Social Network” is a movie about the creation of Facebook, and boy what a movie it is. It might be one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, and most definitely the “Citizen Kane” of our generation. Some are saying that it paints nerds and geeks in a negative light, but I think that just came with the territory of the story, a story about friendships, ideas, and business. The dialogue and pacing could not be any more fantastic, and the editing is masterful. I cannot recommend this movie higher, and is one of the most culturally relevant films this year.

Now my next “review” so to speak is on the recent Muse concert that took place in Denver. Now, you might ask, how is Muse nerdy? Well, most of the songs that the band writes are about sci-fi epics and utopias and dystopias, and their life show showcases this ever so well. With three gigantic skyscraper like pillars on stage, they broadcasted images and move them up and down, moving then band from various locations. It was truly stellar.

Ok, sadly, once again a shorter post. I keep getting so damn busy! I’ll make it up to you all!

Super Short Dead Rising 2 Review

DEAD RISING 2 is AWESOME. I fully recommend you go and get it. I mean, it is full on ridiulousity. You take on the roll of former supercross motorcycle star Chuck Greene is the pseudo post zombie outbreak world of the USA.

In the first game, you played in a small made up town in Colorado, in this one you play in a small town that acts as an analogue to Las Vegas. As you can imagine, running around a zombie infested Las Vegas town is as exciting as it could possibly be. Everything you can see is a weapon, from craps tables, to chairs, to guns, to skateboards, to chainsaws. All of it!

And the thing that sets Dead Rising 2 apart? The ability to combine weapons together! Take a rowboat paddle, combine it with a chainsaw, you get a paddlesaw! Literally a rowboat paddle with chainsaws attached to either side! And it doesn’t stop there. Take a leaf blower and jewelry? A powerful pellet launcher! A concrete saw and plates? A powerful plate launcher! Take a flashlight and a diamond? YOU MAKE  A LIGHT-SABER!

I think you can imagine why I like this game.

That being said, I am not that far in it yet. So I will write a SUPER LONG review another day!

I play it so you don’t have to! But I fully recommend you do!