Hey guys, the past couple of posts were from my IGN.com blog, which you can view here. They've been having problems with their server or blog or something, and there has been an (all but) permanent notice basically saying "save your blog posts elsewhere because shit might go down" so I decided to re-post them here. I'll continue to do that when I add updates on that blog, a short blurb about what the article is about and a link to it. I'll do that with any of my other blogs or online writing, whether it be 2guysonemovie, the-booze-blog, Buffalo.com or thehockeywriters.com. So stay tuned...
That being said, here's a link to the latest 2guysonemovie review, Star Trek. It was a good film, 4 out of 5 in my book, full of explosions, great characters, bar fights and titty grabbing.
So that's basically what this blog is for, I don't really want to talk about my life or anything like that because that shit is pretty tired- not my life, the cliche of people having a blog about their boring life. My life couldn't be chronicled in written word, it's that fucking intense. This blog is for me to save my previous work and be able to come back and check it out via links I throw up here.
-mike
Oct 5, 2010
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Demo... Gnarly!
Activision and Neversoft Entertainment are back with the latest installment of Guitar Hero, this time with a pretty epic title, “Warriors of Rock.” Brutal…
With a release date of September 28 (so close!), Warriors of Rock is going to set a whole new tone for the Guitar Hero series. With 90+ songs and a ridiculous amount of imports and downloadables, the playlist on this game is going to be massive. This game is also going to have a pretty neat new controller, which, if anything, looks really cool; We’ll have to see how the play is on it when it comes out.
Ok, cool… but how’s the demo!? After a pretty decent sized download (100+ MB), I fired this baby up, grabbed my (plastic) axe, and got ready to rock.
So the beginning sequence shows us this crazy Viking battling this gigantic robotic beast, kind of like a giant rock stage come to life. The Viking has a rad looking Axe (it’s totally a guitar) and he’s waging some serious war with his mechanical foe. The beast defeats our friend the Viking, sending the guitar/battle axe into an underground cave, banished until someone worthy enough can wield it again. The hero is then “entombed in a granite prison” which is another way of saying “turned into an awesome statue”. “Warriors” are need to find the ancient weapon and release the hero, so a call goes out across the land for someone to step up and lend him a hand. The winner will be transformed in to warrior with great powers… this is where we come in.
Right away, I like this concept. This is a cool direction for the game to be going. Instead of the usual stages we’re all used to with the Guitar Hero series (start a band, get discovered, play concerts, make it big, blah-blah-blah), we actually have a mission- to help our Viking friend and defeat the evil stage…robot…monster…thing…?
The only playable character in the demo is our old favorite, punk rocker Johnny Napalm. We get a nice “Quest Completion” meter next to his name, which is currently at 0%. It also says “Speed Freak” next to his name and a nice little biography: Johnny’s energy is boundless, but unfocused and wild. Given a greater goal, though, he could bring his tempestuous nature to bear. This makes me think that maybe other characters will have different abilities in this game.
We also see that, in the same meter area, there is a chart saying 0/12 To Transform, which makes me think (and this is exactly right, I soon discover) that as you play songs you earn whatever the heck it is that you need to “transform.” I end up picking up “7″ in my first song. Ign.com has a lot more details on the game, but I’m really only focused on the demo in this article.
The playable tracks in this cut down version are:
Children of the Grave- Black Sabbath, 1971
No Way Back- Foo Fighters, 2005
Ghost- Slash featuring Ian Astbury, 2010
The standards are back when you select your instrument, vocals, guitar/bass guitar, drums and something else (I haven’t play any recent installments of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, so hell if I know what the last thing is… keyboards?).
Upon selecting the first track, we are taken to a cut scene. CBGB is the venue! Johnny wakes up wasted outside, struts into the bar, chugs a Coke (the sponsors are back, stronger than ever. Also, I’ve never sobered up by drinking a Coke before…) and climbs the stage. The song begins…
During my first run of “Children of the Grave” I was able to pound out a 318 note streak and finish with 94% accuracy (I’ll admit to have a few drinks before playing… the download took awhile…). I hit 686/723 notes, pretty much only messing up on the two solos. I really like this stat chart they have. It will have the stats of all the players (singer, guitar, drums), breaking their routine down into categories like Into, Solo A, Riff 2 and so on, showing what percentage you get for each category- very cool. I got a 7. Not too shabby for a guy who hasn’t really played much Guitar Hero since the second game.
I did similarly good on the Foo Fighters song, with my difficulty setting still set at Hard- fyi, it was surprisingly hard. After this song, I had enough… credits?… points?… to get to 12, which turned me into this creepy epic demon version of Johnny. “Warrior Johnny” is a brutal mutant elf looking version of normal Johnny- also cool, his whole band turns into Warrior Mode as well.
After you get to 12 you turn into the warrior- the true embodiment of chaos, in Johnny’s case- and then get to play the “encore” although it isn’t called an “encore” this go around. To my surprise and pleasure, the hidden song was “Bloodlines” by the cartoon band Dethklok from Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network’s [adult swim]. Known for playing brutally metal songs, I couldn’t think of a better band to cover when in “Warrior Mode.” The song was pretty difficult, full of long, note filled solos. I had some trouble with it, but eventually got through it.
After I defeated the song, I unlocked Warrior Johnny and His Band’s Outfits, More Powers for Quickplay, Johnny’s Archaic Anarchy Guitar and Bass and More Quickplay venues- none of these were usable in the demo version, unfortunately.
Overall, this was a fun demo which gave me a great look at the game to be. I haven’t bought a Guitar Hero game in a long while, but I might shell out the bucks and scoop this one up.
One thing I did notice was the improvement of the animation. The note track looked, in my opinion, easier to read, with clearly lit and quite detailed note markers. The background animation was awesome- the crowd was great looking and so was the animation of the band. The sound was great- “Children of the Grave” is one of my favorite Ozzy songs and I thought it was skillfully covered. My only beef was with the singer, a skinny, bald dude who looked nothing like the Oz man. For shame, Activision!
All in all, I think this is going to be a fun new take on the genre and definitely worth picking up when it’s released.
Ok, cool… but how’s the demo!? After a pretty decent sized download (100+ MB), I fired this baby up, grabbed my (plastic) axe, and got ready to rock.
So the beginning sequence shows us this crazy Viking battling this gigantic robotic beast, kind of like a giant rock stage come to life. The Viking has a rad looking Axe (it’s totally a guitar) and he’s waging some serious war with his mechanical foe. The beast defeats our friend the Viking, sending the guitar/battle axe into an underground cave, banished until someone worthy enough can wield it again. The hero is then “entombed in a granite prison” which is another way of saying “turned into an awesome statue”. “Warriors” are need to find the ancient weapon and release the hero, so a call goes out across the land for someone to step up and lend him a hand. The winner will be transformed in to warrior with great powers… this is where we come in.
Right away, I like this concept. This is a cool direction for the game to be going. Instead of the usual stages we’re all used to with the Guitar Hero series (start a band, get discovered, play concerts, make it big, blah-blah-blah), we actually have a mission- to help our Viking friend and defeat the evil stage…robot…monster…thing…?
The only playable character in the demo is our old favorite, punk rocker Johnny Napalm. We get a nice “Quest Completion” meter next to his name, which is currently at 0%. It also says “Speed Freak” next to his name and a nice little biography: Johnny’s energy is boundless, but unfocused and wild. Given a greater goal, though, he could bring his tempestuous nature to bear. This makes me think that maybe other characters will have different abilities in this game.
We also see that, in the same meter area, there is a chart saying 0/12 To Transform, which makes me think (and this is exactly right, I soon discover) that as you play songs you earn whatever the heck it is that you need to “transform.” I end up picking up “7″ in my first song. Ign.com has a lot more details on the game, but I’m really only focused on the demo in this article.
The playable tracks in this cut down version are:
Children of the Grave- Black Sabbath, 1971
No Way Back- Foo Fighters, 2005
Ghost- Slash featuring Ian Astbury, 2010
The standards are back when you select your instrument, vocals, guitar/bass guitar, drums and something else (I haven’t play any recent installments of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, so hell if I know what the last thing is… keyboards?).
Upon selecting the first track, we are taken to a cut scene. CBGB is the venue! Johnny wakes up wasted outside, struts into the bar, chugs a Coke (the sponsors are back, stronger than ever. Also, I’ve never sobered up by drinking a Coke before…) and climbs the stage. The song begins…
During my first run of “Children of the Grave” I was able to pound out a 318 note streak and finish with 94% accuracy (I’ll admit to have a few drinks before playing… the download took awhile…). I hit 686/723 notes, pretty much only messing up on the two solos. I really like this stat chart they have. It will have the stats of all the players (singer, guitar, drums), breaking their routine down into categories like Into, Solo A, Riff 2 and so on, showing what percentage you get for each category- very cool. I got a 7. Not too shabby for a guy who hasn’t really played much Guitar Hero since the second game.
I did similarly good on the Foo Fighters song, with my difficulty setting still set at Hard- fyi, it was surprisingly hard. After this song, I had enough… credits?… points?… to get to 12, which turned me into this creepy epic demon version of Johnny. “Warrior Johnny” is a brutal mutant elf looking version of normal Johnny- also cool, his whole band turns into Warrior Mode as well.
After you get to 12 you turn into the warrior- the true embodiment of chaos, in Johnny’s case- and then get to play the “encore” although it isn’t called an “encore” this go around. To my surprise and pleasure, the hidden song was “Bloodlines” by the cartoon band Dethklok from Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network’s [adult swim]. Known for playing brutally metal songs, I couldn’t think of a better band to cover when in “Warrior Mode.” The song was pretty difficult, full of long, note filled solos. I had some trouble with it, but eventually got through it.
After I defeated the song, I unlocked Warrior Johnny and His Band’s Outfits, More Powers for Quickplay, Johnny’s Archaic Anarchy Guitar and Bass and More Quickplay venues- none of these were usable in the demo version, unfortunately.
Overall, this was a fun demo which gave me a great look at the game to be. I haven’t bought a Guitar Hero game in a long while, but I might shell out the bucks and scoop this one up.
One thing I did notice was the improvement of the animation. The note track looked, in my opinion, easier to read, with clearly lit and quite detailed note markers. The background animation was awesome- the crowd was great looking and so was the animation of the band. The sound was great- “Children of the Grave” is one of my favorite Ozzy songs and I thought it was skillfully covered. My only beef was with the singer, a skinny, bald dude who looked nothing like the Oz man. For shame, Activision!
All in all, I think this is going to be a fun new take on the genre and definitely worth picking up when it’s released.
Sep 14, 2010
Why the GoldenEye Remake Will SUCK
Ok, the title is probably a bit harsh. I don’t think the game will suck, necessarily, but I don’t believe it will be anywhere close to the original on many different levels. Here are the top three reasons why GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo Wii won’t be able to touch GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64.
3.) We’re all spoiled
This isn’t the 1990s, guys- it’s 2010. We’ve come a long way since the Nintendo 64 (and Playstation 2 for that matter): technology has advanced and video games have gotten better right along with it. If 1997 me was given the sticks and asked to play GTA IV, my brain would have exploded through the back of my skull. The graphics (as well as sound, color, game-play etc. etc.) of new games, and this new GoldenEye for that matter, will (obviously) blow older games (and the original GoldenEye) out of the water. I mean, any game after 1997 would, really. With games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo:Reach, with their crisp graphics, fast frame rates and overall playability, is a remake of a 1997 first person shooter really going to wow anyone? Doubtful. Its re-release and re-vamping is a way to make a quick buck, but honestly I would rather just play the original on the N64 than spend money on a better looking version of the same thing.
2.) They replaced Pierce!
You’ve got a lot of nerve, Activision. You took Pierce Brosnan, the man who played James Bond in the movie the game is based on, cut him from the game, and stuck Daniel Craig in his place. Really? That would be like taking Luigi out of new Super Mario games and replacing him with John Leguizamo. How dare you replace Pierce, arguably the second best James Bond of all time (maybe not second, but no one can touch Sean Connery in first place), with D. Craig-sauce who has not yet proven himself as the famous British secret agent.
1.) I am 23 years-old
That’s right, Activision. I am no longer that bright-eyed 10 year-old who first picked up an N64 controller to experience one of the best first person shooters (and one of the first I had ever played, safe for Doom) of all time. I’m a 23 year-old man who likes to drink Jameson, smoke cigarettes and make fun of all the young and annoying kids who yell into their mics while playing MW2. While this new Bond game might send me back for a minute and wash feelings of nostalgia over me, I just can’t imagine that it would be more enjoyable than just dusting off my N64 and playing some GoldenEye on that. Screens and video we’ve seen of the game look crisp and detailed, but I’d still rather rock the original any day of the week.
The thing we all loved about GoldenEye 007 when it first came out wasn’t the graphics (although for the time, they were pretty good). It was the fun we had playing through the story… and then beating the hell out of our friends in the multi-player. The remake, in my opinion, is unnecessary. Yes, it will give another generation of younger gamers a chance to play, but let’s be honest: the people most excited are the ones who played it back in the 1990s.
Will I buy this game on November 2? Yes. Will I still play the original with my friends over a 30 pack of Coors Light? Yes. Will I still be Oddjob? That’s a BIG 10-4, good buddy.
3.) We’re all spoiled
This isn’t the 1990s, guys- it’s 2010. We’ve come a long way since the Nintendo 64 (and Playstation 2 for that matter): technology has advanced and video games have gotten better right along with it. If 1997 me was given the sticks and asked to play GTA IV, my brain would have exploded through the back of my skull. The graphics (as well as sound, color, game-play etc. etc.) of new games, and this new GoldenEye for that matter, will (obviously) blow older games (and the original GoldenEye) out of the water. I mean, any game after 1997 would, really. With games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo:Reach, with their crisp graphics, fast frame rates and overall playability, is a remake of a 1997 first person shooter really going to wow anyone? Doubtful. Its re-release and re-vamping is a way to make a quick buck, but honestly I would rather just play the original on the N64 than spend money on a better looking version of the same thing.
2.) They replaced Pierce!
You’ve got a lot of nerve, Activision. You took Pierce Brosnan, the man who played James Bond in the movie the game is based on, cut him from the game, and stuck Daniel Craig in his place. Really? That would be like taking Luigi out of new Super Mario games and replacing him with John Leguizamo. How dare you replace Pierce, arguably the second best James Bond of all time (maybe not second, but no one can touch Sean Connery in first place), with D. Craig-sauce who has not yet proven himself as the famous British secret agent.
1.) I am 23 years-old
That’s right, Activision. I am no longer that bright-eyed 10 year-old who first picked up an N64 controller to experience one of the best first person shooters (and one of the first I had ever played, safe for Doom) of all time. I’m a 23 year-old man who likes to drink Jameson, smoke cigarettes and make fun of all the young and annoying kids who yell into their mics while playing MW2. While this new Bond game might send me back for a minute and wash feelings of nostalgia over me, I just can’t imagine that it would be more enjoyable than just dusting off my N64 and playing some GoldenEye on that. Screens and video we’ve seen of the game look crisp and detailed, but I’d still rather rock the original any day of the week.
The thing we all loved about GoldenEye 007 when it first came out wasn’t the graphics (although for the time, they were pretty good). It was the fun we had playing through the story… and then beating the hell out of our friends in the multi-player. The remake, in my opinion, is unnecessary. Yes, it will give another generation of younger gamers a chance to play, but let’s be honest: the people most excited are the ones who played it back in the 1990s.
Will I buy this game on November 2? Yes. Will I still play the original with my friends over a 30 pack of Coors Light? Yes. Will I still be Oddjob? That’s a BIG 10-4, good buddy.
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